Finding a Path
by Kizmet
Summary: What led Han Solo to become a smuggler?
1. Anakin

**Finding A Path (Part 1)**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

"Anakin, I didn't expect you today," Candra commented stepping into the room. 

For a few moments I just looked at her, taking note of the way the sunlight struck her long dark hair, and how the graceful rose tinted dress complimented her pale oval face. 

"I'm sorry if I have interrupted anything," I apologized, although her delighted smile showed that seeing me was much more important than whatever I had interrupted. 

"I came to say goodbye," I explained. 

"Yet another mission?" Candra sighed. "It's almost enough to make one wish you weren't quiet so inexpendable to the fleet. Where are you being sent to this time, and how soon can you come home?" 

"A rim world named Corellus," I answered, "They've applied for membership in the Republic, and as proof of the Republic's serious consideration of their request my wing and several others are being sent to deal with some very persistent raiders in the area." 

"And to observe the Corellians, to see if they are truly the type of people one wants in the Republic." Candra suggested. 

I laughed softly, "Candra you should be in charge of the council, you always know what they're going to decide weeks, no months, before they manage to make up their minds." 

"That is because the Republic is becoming too large, there are too many people who's only goal is their own advancement. They slow the entire government or drag it down a dead end. When those kind of councilors and senators outweigh those who seek to help the people they represent the Republic will be destroyed. Mark my words Anakin Skywalker. The Republic which you fight for is decaying from within, and if people like you and I don't do something to stop it the Republic will be destroyed!" Candra's intensity startled me. 

"Relax Candra, with the Jedi Knights, councilors like Mon Mothma, and Senators like Bail Organa nothing could go wrong." 

"Senator Organa and Mon Mothma are only two people. They have to fight harder every year to be heard, how long will it be before their voices are drowned out altogether. And even the Jedi Knight can't be everywhere at once. The Republic has grown to large for them to address every wrong," Candra argued. "Besides Senator Organa's two sons are taking up more and more of his energy." 

"Sending them to Star fleet academy certainly didn't work out. It was suppose to keep Lan and Cal out of the Senator's hair, but they get in more trouble there than they did on Alderaan," I commented. 

Candra grimaced then asked, "What do you think will happen to them?" 

"The other cadets are betting on whether they'll be killed or court-martialed," I replied then added hesitantly, "It might be best for everyone if they were killed." 

"Anakin!" Candra exclaimed, "Don't even think that. Despite their faults they're still Senator Oragana's children." 

This was starting to sound like an argument, so I changed the subject. I didn't want this afternoon to be ruined. "What did I interrupt?" I asked. 

Candra smiled sadly, "You're right we shouldn't argue before you leave." She paused a moment. "We have a guest, General Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight." 

"Why don't you introduce me," I suggested, I had never met one of the Jedi Knights before. 

"Alright," Candra replied, "He's in the Main Hall." 

I caught her hand and we hurried to the Main Hall. 

Kenobi was an older man with dark piercing eyes that settled on me the instant we entered the room. 

"Who might this be?" Kenobi asked nodding in my direction. 

"General Kenobi, may I introduce my fiance Anakin Skywalker, the best X-wing pilot in Starfleet!" I blushed slightly at Candra's introduction. 

"I came over to say goodbye to Candra," I explained, "I've been sent to Corellus." 

"When do you expect to be back?" Kenobi asked. 

"In a month at best, but I'll probably be out there longer," I answered, confused at his interest in me. 

"It is quite likely that you shall see me on your return," He commented. 

"Why?" I asked bluntly 

"We shall see," Kenobi said smiling mysteriously. 

============================================================== 

Later that evening Candra and I strolled through the immense gardens that surrounded her family estates. 

"Are Jedi Knights always so... unsettling?" I asked. 

"Most are," Candra replied. "Lets talk about something more interesting." 

"Such as?" I asked laughing. 

"Our wedding!" Candra exclaimed. 

"What do you want to hear?" I asked. 

"A date, when are we getting married." Candra demanded. "You've canceled six times already!" 

"As soon as I get back from this mission we'll start preparations for the wedding," I promised. 

"The minute you land on the planet we start." 

"I'll see you then darling, I have to get my X-wing ready for the trip." 

============================================================== 

I stared at my group of cadets, then turned to the Corellian Ambassador, "Some of these cadets are children!" 

"They are Kaadish, and all have flown before." the Ambassador replied. 

"Without training! You sent up a bunch of kids without training!" I yelled. 

At my words one of the younger boys in the group stepped forward. Unlike the rest of the cadets his head was up and his dark eyes were bright with angry fire. "Sir, we're not children, and if you do what you were sent to do we wouldn't be untrained!" he exclaimed hotly. 

The ambassador glared at the boy, "You speak out of turn!" Suddenly the boy's hand flew to his temple. 

"I apologize," The boy whispered through tightly clenched teeth. 

"Do not forget yourself again." The Ambassador ordered, and the signs of pain disappeared from the boy as quickly as they had appeared. 

"I am sorry our discussion was interrupted," the Ambassador remarked calmly. 

"What happened to that kid?" I demanded, shocked. 

"I'm sure you're very confused Commander Skywalker, and possibly drawing several incorrect conclusions from this incident. All you saw was a Kaadish being reprimanded by the only medium they understand," The Ambassador explained. 

This gave me a very good lead on one part of my mission here. If the laws on Corellus had the attitude toward the Kaadish that I expected them to have this planet would have an extremely long wait to get into the Republic. "Thank you for clarifying the matter," I commented, "I'd like to start working with the cadets." 

"I'll leave you to your work," the Ambassador replied. 

As soon as he left I said, "I'm Anakin Skywalker, and I'm here to help you to learn to defend your planet." 

"Frankly Anakin Skywalker this isn't really our planet." A pale blond boy with startlingly blue eyes informed me. 

"Weren't you born here?" I asked. 

"We and all our ancestors were," A girl with short auburn hair replied. 

"Then why isn't it you planet?" 

A young man in his late teens answered boredly, "You heard the Ambassador, we're Kaadish, the conquered ones." 

The boy who had spoken to me originally whirled to face the youth, "We're not Kaadish Jak! We're Corellians. They've taken this planet from us, but they can't take what we are, not unless we give it to them." 

"They did conquer our planet Han. And with the implants," The auburn haired girl paused to tap her temple, "We can't fight them." 

I listened curiously to this conversation. These kids were revealing some very interesting facts about their planet. The blond boy stepped forward to confront the one called Han. "And you're the most conquered of all, you fight for them!" 

"I defend this planet! Our home!" Han yelled. 

"You protect the colonists' homes and lives," The older boy, Jak accused. 

"Would you have me allow the raiders to destroy our planet!" Han challenged. "Once the colonists are gone it will be us living on a burnt out shell!" 

"Give up your fantasies, Han. The Colonists are never leaving. Letting the raiders destroy this planet is the only way to beat them!" 

"Kaadish like you are what could cause the rebellion to fail," Han snarled. 

"The Rebellion," The blond boy sneered. "Your Rebels are helpless!" 

Han and the blond boy were suddenly circling each other warily. 

"Cool it!" I yelled, stepping between the pair, "I'm going to teach high altitude fighting, whether you want to learn or not." I paused a second, "What are your names and how old are you?" 

The cadets stood silently for a few moments more then the fiery dark haired boy stepped forward, "Han Solo," He said simply. 

The blond boy moved forward next, "Eric Jaff, I'm fourteen, Han's thirteen." 

"Jak Col, seventeen," The older boy commented. 

"Calla, fifteen" that was the auburn haired girl. 

"Callandra Tradd, fourteen and a half," Eric Jaff corrected. 

"Just Calla," the girl stated firmly. 

Han brought forward a small fine boned girl, "This is Trish Del, she's thirteen years old." 

"Just what I need, a nursery school," I muttered angrily. "You've all been up before, correct?" 

"We've all flown in five battles," Han volunteered. 

"There were fifty of us before the first battle," Calla stated accusingly. 

"Many of them believed by defending their lives they would be helping the colonists, so they wouldn't fight," Han explained. "Eric, Calla, and Jak survived by firing only when fired on." 

"It's the only ethical way to survive," Calla insisted. 

"You and Trish betrayed our people," Eric added. 

Han's eyes sparkled angrily. "Let's move on to your ships," I instructed. 

Calla immediately moved off toward a row of battered high altitude fighters. I groaned upon seeing them, all they had in common was that they were antiques. One was an early model Headhunter, another an E-6 Light, the other three seemed to be unsuccessful prototype IRD's each of a different make. 

"This makes things difficult," I commented. "Everyone to your ships." 

I followed Eric Jaff to the first ship in the line up. "What can you tell me about this ship?" I asked. 

"It's the earliest working model of the Light series. It was developed on Corellus and was used by most of the galaxy... 300 years ago. This particular ship was stolen from the Aeronautics museum in the old capital city." Eric reported without expression. 

"I don't want a history lesson, Mr. Jaff, I want a performance report," I reprimmanded him sternly. 

"It just barely classifies as a high altitude fighter, It's top performance level is in the upper troposphere. The main advantage of an E-6 is their weapons range. Their main weakness is speed. They can just break the sound barrier," Eric reported crisply. 

"Much better," I commented, then moved on to the next ship. It was one of the IRD prototypes, and Jak Col manned it. 

His answer to my question was: "It flies, it kills people." 

"Elaborate," I ordered. 

"I steer it with the control-stick embedded in the armrest," Jak reached across his body and gripped the stick with his left hand. "I'm left handed," he explained, "The colonists wouldn't pay anyone to reroute the controls for the convenience of a Kaadish. 

"Back to how the ship works. There is no reverse, you're always moving forward. Push the stick forward; you loose altitude, pull it back; you gain altitude. Move the stick left; the ship peels off to the left, move it right; the ship peels off to the right. Depress the red button on top of the control stick and the lasers on both sides of the ship fire," Jak recited in a disinterested voice. 

"That's very good Mr. Col, now could you demonstrate your knowledge of the sensory equipment?" I requested. 

"Altimeter, speedometer, targeting computer, and gyroscope," He listed pointing to each as he said it's name. 

"What display mode should they be in during battle?" I demanded. A blank look was the only answer I received. "Have you ever heard of a heads-up display?" I asked he nodded, "Please activate it." 

For several seconds he searched for the switch. When he finally found it, ghostly images of the instrument panels appeared on the IRD's canopy. 

"Be sure to use the heads-up display from now on. What make is your ship and what are a few of it's strengths and weaknesses?" 

Jak shrugged without a flicker of interest. 

"It's an IRD prototype, I'll have to fly it myself to discover the other." 

I moved on to the next IRD, it was Calla's. Her answers showed she knew a lot about the ship, but couldn't care less. 

Trish was a surprise though. "Tell me about your ship," I ordered, not quiet sure how a child would answer. 

"It is an IRD prototype, the Republic abandoned it because of it's short weapons range, the lasers are effective at a maximum of only 25 meters, and most people can't target when their ship moves as fast as this one does. It maneuvers well enough in the ionosphere, but if you try anything fancy in the thicker air you'll rip the wings right off. The controls have been rerouted so a small person, like myself, can use them. Han and I team up as much as possible because..." 

"Hang on a second Trish, if your controls are rerouted for you, why didn't anyone fix Jak Col's?" I asked. 

"Han and I spent two months worth of free time getting our ships in the best shape possible. Both of us know a lot about high altitude fighters, our parents all flew in the same wing." 

"You and Han fly in a pair, why?" 

"A two ship element is safer and more effective. It's hard with ships of different makes, though. Han has a Headhunter, a Z-95, so he'd rather be down in the middle stratosphere, or even the cellar, I mean the lower troposphere, while it's best if I stay as high as possible," Trish replied. 

"Thank you Trish," I said. Then headed to the last ship. After talking to Trish I really didn't know what to expect from Han Solo. 

"What do ya what to know?" Han yelled as I approached the ship. 

"I'd like to get an idea of how much you know about your ship," I answered. 

"Alright," Han replied with a laugh. 

He shut the cock-pit and started the ship. Hurriedly I backed away. A second later Trish's ship roared to life. I ran to Calla's IRD, leaning over her, I activated the ship's com system. 

"Han, Trish, what do you think you're doing!" I yelled. 

"Showing you what we know," Han replied coolly. 

"Shut down your ships immediately!" I ordered. 

"Sorry Commander," Han laughed. The pitch of his engines became a high whine, and his ship streaked toward the skies. Trish followed close behind him. 

"Come on up," Han invited. 

"Calla could I borrow your ship?" I asked tensely. 

Calla hurriedly threw herself out of the fighter, and ran to Jak's, probably to listen to Han and Trish getting bawled out. 

As I prepared for take-off Han kept up a running report on what he was doing, and how the ship was responding. 

"Going to heads-up display... Trish is behind and above me, relative to angle of ascent... Exiting troposphere... Keeping things simple 'till ionosphere... Reached upper stratosphere... Leveling off," Han narrated. "Engines running smoothly... Trish peel off sharp left, I'm going right." 

I had visual contact with them by then. 

"Meeting loops," Han called. 

The two ships quickly moved so that they were flying one upside-down close beneath the other. Then each peeled off slowly so that they flew wing tip to wing tip. They continued to turn till they reached their original position. Then they repeated the maneuver. Slowly I became aware that they were gradually increasing speed, still keeping their formation incredibly tight. 

Both Han and Trish were yelling exited congratulations to each other. 

"Split!" Trish yelled sharply. 

Han's Headhunter spiraled deep into the atmosphere, while Trish spun off toward space. 

"In coming!" Han yelled, "Four o' clock, five seconds from firing range." 

Confused I checked my equipment, other than our three ships the sky was empty. 

Suddenly Trish's lasers fired, precisely where Han told her the `enemy ship' was. 

Trish's course became erratic, "I'm being followed!" she screamed, "I can shake him!" 

Han raced after her, "Thirty meters behind me," Trish calmly informed him. Han paused a second then opened fire. 

As they continued to play their game I realized they had come up with an ingenious way to practice battle maneuvers. At the Academy we used million dollar simulators to do the same thing two children did with their imagination. 

"Solo, Del! It's time we land," I ordered. 

Trish sighed and began angling her ship toward the ground. 

"Trish, eleven o' clock, 30 seconds to range!" Han yelled desperately. 

Automatically Trish pulled up and prepared for battle. "Give me a hand here, there's quite a few of them," Trish replied steadily. 

"Enough's enough you two!" I yelled. "Land your fighters!" 

"Before we do, you should check your sensors," Han insisted. 

I had switched off the heads up display to watch Han and Trish. Now I quickly searched for the button to turn it back on. When I found it, there were eight blips right where Han said they would be. 

"Jak, Eric get up here! We're about to be hit by raiders." I shouted. 

It would be the oddest battle I ever fought in. 

Jak and Eric flew around the perimeter of the fighting, ignoring any ship which didn't fire on them. While Trish and Han seemed to be engaged in a game of cat, mouse, and dog. One of them would trick one of the raiders into following them, then the other would quickly destroy the enemy ship. 

I abandoned fancy tactics and concentrated on just blowing up as many ships as possible. I took care of three of the ships, none of the other pilots were anything special. Jak got one kill, I'm reasonably sure that was an accident. Three of Han and Trish's kills were as unspectacular as the rest of ours, but their last opponent was a cut above the rest. I couldn't watch them, being engaged in battle myself, but I could hear them explaining different plans to one another, and I could hear the strained shriek of their engines as they pushed their ships well beyond safety limits. 

"Trish pull up! You can't use that maneuver in the cellar," Han cried, seeming to end one plan. 

That was on an open channel, I knew the other pilot had heard. I waited tensely for the sound of Trish's ship coming apart around her, silently cursing a government that would send children into battle. Watching Han and Trish fly, I had forgotten how young they actually were. What was going to happen wasn't Han's fault. A fighter pilot had a million details to keep track of in a battle: the strengths and weaknesses of enemy ships, your ship, your allies' ships, altitudes, speeds, positions of all ships just of name a few. How could a thirteen-year-old kid remember all of them. 

But Han's mistake, failing to code his transmission, would cost Trish her life. 

I waited, but there was no explosion. Then I heard Han's low soft laughter. "He fell for it Trish, he fell for it," Han sounded incredibly relieved. 

"The raiders have never been that good before," Trish remarked shakily. 

"What did you two do!" I demanded. "He knew Trish was going to pull up!" 

Han laughed again, "We fooled you, too." 

"I didn't pull up," Trish explained, "But he reacted like I was going to!" 

"He pulled up right into my sights!" Han exclaimed triumphantly. 

============================================================== 

"This world practices slavery," I reported to Admiral Dayvon. "The cadets didn't volunteer, they were forced into it. Some of them think it would be better if Corellus were destroyed. 

"The beings in charge of the planet aren't even native to it. They're just colonists. They conquered the planet and forced its natives into slavery!" I heard my voice rising in anger. "Some of those cadets are children, and the youngest cadets are the only ones that want to protect their planet!" 

"Commander Skywalker! Calm down. You were supposed to help Corellus to take care of the raiders irregardless of whether or not Corellus would be allowed into the Republic. It's obvious they won't be, but as to the cadet's ages, the Republic may have enough people to train cadets for several years before sending them into battle; fringe worlds don't. Consequently they have to send up sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds." 

"I'm not complaining about the seventeen-year-old! I'm furious about a fourteen-year-old who doesn't even want to fight, and worse yet two thirteen-year-olds who do want to!" I yelled. "All three have survived six battles already, how much longer will their luck hold out? How long will it be before they're put up against a well trained pilot?" 

"Corellus isn't a member of the Republic, Commander. That means we can't tell the Corellians or Colonists how to run they're planet. All we can do is inform them that they won't be admitted into the Republic until they stop practing slavery. What you can do is teach those cadets everything you can about high altitude fighting. You can give them a chance to hang on until the planet gets itself streighted out." 

============================================================== 

And so the months passed. Trish and Han became two of the best pilots I ever knew. I borrowed several X-wings and they learned about fighting outside a planet's gravity-well. Our daily schedule ran something like this: 

6:00 Tactics- Han and Trish 

8:00 Breakfast 

9:00 Practice with High Altitude Fighters- All 

12:00 Lunch 

1:00 Take the X-wings out scouting for the raider's base, and practice with the X-wings- Han and Trish 

6:00 Return to planet 

7:00 Trish and Han disappear. They refuse to tell me where they go. 

Whenever the raiders showed up everything was dropped to fight them (or to fly around the battle field avoiding the fighting, depending on which cadet you were talking about.) 

Every battle brought Han and Eric closer to a confrontation of their own. Whenever they were in the same room there was carefully aimed talk of betrayal, cowardice, hopelessness, and submission. 

Their voices woke me from a sound sleep one morning approximately three months after my arrival. 

"Why are you protecting them?" Eric accused angrily. 

"We protect this planet," Trish corrected softly. 

"No, you show-off for Commander Skywalker. You think he's your ticket off this miserable world, don't you," Eric taunted. 

"I won't leave this planet," Han stated firmly. 

"Why not?" Eric asked. I heard a trap setting in his voice and hoped Han heard it as well. 

"It is my home," Han answered simply. The breath I hadn't known I was holding escaped. 

"Your home," Eric sneered. "Everything on this planet is the colonists', including us! We are Kaadish." 

"You may have been conquered," Han replied, "But I haven't given up, not yet." 

"Do you continue to fight?" 

"I have yet to surrender," Han answered, a note of caution entering his voice. 

"You almost sound like a member of the group which is bringing about the destruction of our people," Eric remarked. 

"That's funny, I didn't think I sounded anything at all like you," Han commented lightly. 

"It's not me destroying my own people," Eric's voice was angry, intense. He discarded the vague questions and comments that they had been using, "The Rebels are scaring the Colonists. Anyone they even suspect of being connected to the Rebellion disappears, but the real Rebels are never suspected are they Solo? The real Rebels are much to careful for that. They never slip, except maybe were kids like you are concerned, your parents where certainly Rebels, you grew up with a detailed knowledge of the Rebellion, but you aren't careful enough. I suspect you. All I have to do is remark on my suspicions when a colonist is around, and then you'll disappear and they'll have found the real Rebellion." 

Trish's pale bloodless face could almost confirm Eric's suspicions, Han just smiled. "You're so far off the mark it's not even funny, but you're right about one thing, you could get the Colonist to suspect me without even half trying. And what if you were right, what would the Rebellion do about you? They'd kill you before you could betray your planet again." 

"You'd still die, and pull a part of your precious Rebellion down with you," Eric answered smoothly. "That would be worth my life. Besides, the Rebellion would give me a merciful death, I can't say the same of the Colonists." 

Han shrugged, "Dead is dead, and what if you're wrong? What if I have nothing to do with the Rebellion. What if the only name I tell them is yours. What will you do then?" 

"I guess it all boils down to how much I hate you. That could be quite a lot. You were the only known survivor of the Caldor Square massacre. Why won't you tell me what happened, who else survived?" Eric demanded. 

Han looked tired, "If I knew I'd tell you, but I was knocked out right after the shooting started. I've told you that a thousand times." 

"You're lying, you have to know more," Eric insisted. "Eventually I'll get tired of waiting for you to tell me. So watch out Solo, I hold your life in my hands." 

Han sighed, "With things the way they are, so does every other person on this planet." 

I stepped back from the window, wishing I were home. Wishing I'd never met Han Solo or Trish Del. Wish I had no reason to stay here. Unfortunately it would take something more substantial than wishes to solve this problem. 

The first step to solving a problem is to understand that problem, so I dedicated the day to finding out everything I could about the Rebellion. 

I started by talking to the other Republic pilots. They knew just about the same stuff about the Rebellion as I did. But I found it odd that there were seventy-three people in the training program that held the same political views as Han and Trish, and all seventy-three had some previous experience with High Altitude Fighters, such as having a parent that flew one. That was almost 3/4 of the trainees, but only a fifth of the original number of recruits. 

Then I checked out how the people in the training program had been selected. The answer to this made the afore mentioned numbers even odder. I learned that the Corellians all were living on a small continent in the Nardra Ocean. When someone needed workers they simply flew out to the continent and kidnapped the number of people needed. (Often without regard for the workers' ability to do the job. If the first group didn't work out there were always replacements.) 

The cadets had been picked in the normal random way, that so many of them were fit for the job had to be more than luck. Besides, if I were planning a rebellion and someone offered free training for fighter pilots, I knew I'd be sure to have as many of my people enrolled as possible. 

Han and Trish's nightly disappearances clinched it, for the other seventy-three could never be accounted for during that time either. The obviousness of this plan and the regularity of the Rebels meeting hours led me to believe that the Rebels weren't all that experienced. In addition to that the seventy-three cadets were all between thirteen and twenty-two. 

I decided that the only thing left to do was to confront Han with what I had discovered. 

============================================================== 

"Han, I overheard your argument with Eric the other morning," I commented, watching Han carefully. 

I was disappointed to see a tense guarded look enter his eyes, I never would have brought this up if I hadn't believed that he trusted me, but it seemed that this issue lay well beyond any trust Han had in me. 

"I wanted to know if what he said was true," I continued. 

"I really have told Eric everything I know about Caldor. He had some friends that were involved with it. I'm the only person he knows of that survived. He can't accept that I'm really the only survivor. I might not be, but I don't know that, I don't know what happen to his friends. If I did he'd be the first person I'd tell. Even if I hadn't been knocked out I wouldn't know much about what happened. The protest was completely unorganized. About fifty Corellians decided that the Colonists simply didn't understand how bad things were for us, so we all got together in a mob, and demanded that they treat us like human beings. The Colonists response was to start shooting at us. When that happened we panicked. I hit my head and lost consciousness. When I woke up it was all over," Han exclaimed. 

"I already knew that you wouldn't with holding information from Eric out of malice. Han I want to know if you're involved with the Rebellion," I explained. 

"What would you do if I am, turn me in?" Han asked tensely. 

"I think you know me better than that." 

"Alright Anakin, let's pretend I'm a member of the Rebellion. I'm not saying I am, but let's assume it. Now what are you going to do," Han stated nervously. 

"I'm going to ask you about the Rebellion," I replied. 

"I may not be able to answer all your questions," Han warned. "Remember I'm just pretending to be a Rebel." 

"That's fine," I remarked, thinking this way if I ask a question about something I shouldn't he could claim that only a real Rebel would have that type of information. 

"How long has the Rebellion existed?" I asked. 

"Five years." 

"When did you join it?" 

"When might have I joined the Rebellion," Han corrected. 

"Alright," I sighed, "I rephrase the question." 

"Three years ago." 

"When did Trish become a Rebel." 

"Who says she is!" Han exclaimed angrily. 

"Sorry, forget the question. How might you have become involved with the Rebellion?" I asked, trying to play the game by Han's rules. 

"I might have had some friends who were trusted members of the Rebellion, and when it was brought up that the Rebellion needed pilots one of those friends that I might have, might have submitted my name." Han was making absolutely sure I wouldn't forget that this was only a hypothetical discussion. 

"Then the Rebellion set it up so you and around seventy other Rebels ended up in this program right?" 

"I wouldn't know for sure, but if they did it would be pretty sharp of them," Han replied. 

"It would be all but impossible to guess where and when the colonists were going to get the people for this program. Unless you had a spy in the colonist government." I spoke carefully now, this was the most delicate information I had asked for, but I wanted to know just how far he trusted me. 

"Or a sympathizer," Han suggested. 

"This sympathizer would probably be fairly young, say mid-teens to, oh around twenty," I suggested. 

"Probably." Han smiled suddenly, "How'd you guess her age?" 

"I thought she'd be about the same age as the Rebels. She's the daughter of one of the government officials, isn't she?" 

Han laughed, "You ought to know that that is sensitive material." 

I smiled back, and dropped the subject. "If your Rebellion succeeds, what will you do then?" I asked. 

Han's confused blank look worried me. I tended to forget his age because in most ways Han acted much older than he really was, but this failure to look ahead was all too normal for a child. 

"Well, I guess everything will go back to being like it was before the colonists came," Han finally answered. 

"It won't be quite that easy Han," I warned. "Your Rebels are going to have to set up a new government." 

Han smiled, "I guess we'll work that out after we beat the colonists." 

"How much damage could it do the Rebellion if Eric follows through with his threat," I asked. 

"It would cost them one of their best pilots," Han replied calmly. "Every member of the Rebellion is conditioned not to break under torture." 

I wasn't surprised to see Han grimace slightly. Thinking about my own conditioning tends to make me react in the same way. 

"Besides," Han said more cheerfully, "I've already made certain Eric won't follow through." 

============================================================== 

At dinner that night I found out what Han had done to insure his safety. 

I was surprised when Han took a seat right next to Eric, usually they sat as far apart as possible. 

Within moments they were arguing. This dinner seemed destined to be unpleasant. What it actually became, was shocking. 

In the middle of a particularly nasty comment Eric's eyes turned glassy and his words stumbled to a halt. 

"I think Eric's sick," Trish commented, "I'll help him to his room." 

As Trish fought to guide Eric's unstable mass to the stair case it became obvious that there was something very wrong with him. 

"Maybe we should take him to a hospital," I suggested with real concern. 

"Colonist med-centers don't treat Kaadish," Jak snarled. 

"Trish there's no way you'll get him up the stairs by yourself," Han remarked in a cool detached voice. "Here, let me give you a hand." With that comment Han slipped under Eric's free arm and began guiding both Eric and Trish toward the exit. 

Han was waiting in my quarters when I retired that night. "How'd you get in here?" I exclaimed. 

"It doesn't matter," Han replied shortly. 

"Eric will be fine, he'll sleep for around ninety-six hours and wake up none the worse for wear. Except it will be too late for him to hurt the Rebellion. 

"More importantly," Han continued, "You've got to get off the planet. I've had people make sure all your ships are ready for lift off. What's going to happen is none of the Republic's business. I have permission to give you a twenty-four hour warning; be off Corellus in the time allotted." Han, then slipped out the window and disappeared into the night. 

Obviously the Rebellion was preparing to make its move. That Han had told me about it showed he really did trust me. With this information I could ruin the Rebellion, I could also help it. If all the Republic people suddenly pull off the planet without an explanation it could confuse the Colonists, and confusion could only help the Rebellion. I wished I could stay and see how everything turned out, but Han was right it was none of my business. 

With a sigh I turned to my com station and began preparing the Republic personnel for departure. 

============================================================== 

Twelve hours later I found Han preparing his ship for battle. 

"Good luck Han," I said softly. "If you ever need a hand, you can contact me through Starfleet headquarters on Courscant. Good-bye." 

"Good-bye Anakin. You'd better get going," Han replied. "I'll call up sometime and tell you how every thing works out." 

"Be sure to do that," I said, returning to my X-wing. 

============================================================== 

I contacted Candra when I was forty-eight hours from Courscant. Much later I learned that that call marked the start of the mad rush that surrounded Candra and I's wedding. 

Candra was determined to have a proper wedding, she was also determined that no emergency should have a chance to force me to leave the planet before the ceremony was complete. 

During the two day it took me to reach the Courscant, Candra sent invitations. We'd planned the list together before an earlier wedding date that was called off on account of an impending war between two of the Republic's more bellicose members. Candra also contacted a local minister and made arrangements for the ceremony to take place in her family's home. 

The decorations had already been taken care of. (Once we had made it to the morning of the wedding before I had been called away. That time it was to fight a nearly invincible war machine that, because of some glitch in it's logistics system, had decided that EVERYTHING was the enemy.) So far Candra and I had been engaged for three years and had set six different wedding dates. I've heard seven is a lucky number in many ancient societies, maybe this time the disaster could wait till a few hours after the ceremony had been completed. 

Amazingly Candra and I were in the process of being married only three days after my return to Courscant. 

At the reception I spoke to General Kenobi again, "You have more potential than any Jedi I know," he insisted. "You already use the force on a subconscious level when you fly your X-wing." 

"You're crazy," I informed the old man coolly, "I may be one of the hottest pilots alive, but that's due to training, practice, reflexes, and instinct, nothing more." 

"The force is a part of you," Kenobi replied in the calm, all knowing, extremely annoying way of his. "You cannot ignore it. Think on what I've said, when you're willing to listen with an open mind contact me." 

With that the infuriating Jedi Knight walked away. I didn't see him again for almost a month. I still wasn't sure if I could use the Force, but at that time I realized I would need all the power I could get my hands on. 

============================================================== 

"Do you realize its been two weeks since we were married, and Starfleet hasn't had one emergency requiring the unique and legendary talents of Anakin Skywalker," Candra commented at breakfast one morning. "Maybe we should relax and take our honeymoon." 

"Don't even think about it, as soon as we decide nothing's going to happen, something will," I warned. 

"Anakin we aren't spending our whole life hiding on my parent's estate!" Candra exclaimed. "Today we are going to go somewhere." 

"As madam wishes," I replied lowering my head. 

Candra laughed and softly punched me. "Cut that out," She demanded still laughing. "We will go to the Telcar Mountains." 

"If you don't mind crowding I'll take us in my X-wing." I offered. 

"We'll be there in an hour," Candra cheered. 

============================================================== 

Just as we were landing the call came, "Commander Skywalker report to the base." 

"Acknowledged," I replied. "I'm sorry Candra, do you want me to drop you off at home?" 

"No, I want to go with you. That way I'll find out immediately where you're being sent." 

"Okay," it was the least I could do after that untimely call. We should have gone right after the wedding, then we could have had two weeks for our honeymoon. 

So a little over three hours after breakfast, Candra and I sat in Admiral Dayvon's office and listened to him describe my latest mission. 

"This time it seems the threat is an internal one, a new Senator has been elected, Senator Palpatine. Where ever he goes there's trouble, but we can never connect it to him. You're a very observant person, Anakin. It only took you twenty-four hours to find out what we needed to know on Corellus." 

"Sir, on Corellus I was working with children who didn't always think before they spoke!" I protested, wondering once again how Han's rebellion was faring. 

"I expect this will take longer," Dayvon replied. "But you're still the best man for the job. I'm assigning your wing as Senator Palpatine's party's escort. I would like you to keep an eye on him." 

"How long will this assignment take?" Candra asked. 

"There's no way to know, it all depends on how tight-lipped Palpatine turns out to be," Dayvon answered. 

"When do I leave?" I asked. 

"Tomorrow." 

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	2. Trish

**Finding A Path - Trish**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

Han and I watched the lights of Anakin's convoy disappear into the endless night of space. 

"I'll miss him," I commented. 

"We'll miss him, if we live through the next few days," Han corrected grimly. 

I giggled, "Han, when did you become a pessimist. Of course we'll live, we're the best!" 

"It's time we got to our ships," Han remarked, his tone still dark. 

I smiled happily, "Yes, tonight we take back our planet. We don't want to be late for that!" 

Han sighed and turned back to the landing field. Lately he seemed much older than I. Only eight months ago the Rebellion and combat flying had been the very essence of excitement to both of us. But now Han seemed tense, and very aware that we were playing a dangerous game. He seemed to have forgotten that we were the best at this game, forgotten that we were untouchable. 

I swung myself lightly into my IRD's cockpit, "Fair skies, Han!" I yelled. 

"Luck go with you Trish," He replied. 

"All pilots to the skies," That was the order we had been waiting for. Seventy-five ships rose swiftly then streaked through the darkened skies toward the bright lights of the Colonist capital city. 

When the first of our bombs struck the city the Colonists reacted calmly and naturally. They sent a red alert message to the nearest High Altitude Fighter base. Of course the base couldn't respond, all the fighters had been sabotaged, except for those which were already involved in the attack. And those ships were the ones doing the attacking. 

I was surprised when I noticed Han's Z-95 circling impatiently around a heavily armored, low built compound. 

"What are you doing Han?" I asked flying toward him. 

"When the Colonists figure out who's attacking them they'll use the implants against us," Han replied. "But we found out where the computer that controls the implants is kept. It's in that building." 

"How are you going to destroy it? Your lasers won't penetrate the building's armor," I remarked. 

"We also know that a number of Colonist soldiers are stationed there. When no one responds to the distress call they sent, the soldiers will come out of that building, and I'll go in," Han explained. 

Now I understood Han's grim mood. What he was going to try was crazy, he'd be flying straight into very concentrated fire and he wouldn't have room to maneuver. Worst of all it had to be done. While all the Rebels had been trained to operate while the implants were being used it wasn't easy. The Rebellion could be won or lost depending on the implants. 

The heavy doors slid open. Han's Headhunter dove toward them, throttle wide open, wings drawn back against the sides of his ship. Immediately the Colonist forces opened fire. Han reacted just as Anakin had taught him to. They had spent several hours rigging the Z-95 for continuous fire. In a normal battle that option was worse than useless, it let your opposition know your exact range, so it wasn't even made available. But for what Han was doing it was essential. It let him clear a path through that cramped hall, but he would still have to risk fire from the various branching hallways that would surely line his path. 

Suddenly the implant burst into operation, then shut off. There were several dull crunches from the compound. Seconds later Han's ship exploded from the entrance, followed by a barrage of laser fire. 

As Han pulled up an unlucky shot struck his wing. The Headhunter spun uncontrollably. I waited for several seconds but Han made no visible attempt to bring the ship under control or to eject. 

"Han!" I yelled sending my IRD racing after him. Han didn't reply. I swallowed softly, at best Han's com unit had been destroyed, but it was far more likely that he was unconscious or dead. The wild spiraling of his ship could easily have been caused by the weight of his body leaning against the control stick. 

Slowly tears trickled down my cheeks, there wasn't anything I could do to help. With a sob I turned my ship back to the battle. 

The next few weeks all blurred together in my mind. I would fly till my fuel ran low. Then while I waited for the refueling process to be completed I grabbed a quick bite to eat. Every fifth stop I would drag myself to a nearby couch for a nap. At first I had trouble sleeping during the day, but after a short while day and night ceased to have much meaning for me. 

Slowly the colonists were herded together and forced out of our cities. They made their final stand in Kaydose Pass, the only entrance to Jotorus Range. 

Jotorus Range is approximately 1000 acres located on the western most peninsula of the continent. Surrounded on three sides by a shallow, reef infested sea, and cut off from the rest of the continent by a virtually impassable mountain range, Jotorus Range was a world unto itself. For nearly two thousand years it had been off limits to technology, and no human had ventured within it since the ban on technology. It was the only place on the planet where animals could roam their natural habitat. Most humans felt very uncomfortable with the idea of entering a world where nature still ruled. We had become used to ruling our environment with an iron hand. I had heard of droughts, floods, and other natural disasters, but had never experienced anything more threatening than one unscheduled rain storm five years ago. That was when a computer virus got loose in the weather service's computer complex. 

Kaydose Pass pass was narrow and tall mountains on either side of it curved protectively over it, making attacks from the air useless. Until the Colonists were pushed on to the plains beyond Kaydose, fighter pilots, like myself, were no longer needed. Therefore, once it became obvious that the battle for Kaydose Pass was going to be a long one, all pilots were called back to protect the cities from the still present raiders. 

The new Rebel government eventually called back most of our forces. The official attitude was that as long as the Colonists were trapped in Kaydose we didn't need to worry about them. 

============================================================== 

I hated going back to the base, going back to the routine Han and I had established. In the excitement of the war it was possible to avoid thinking about Han, but now I found myself waiting at our old meeting places, fully expecting Han to show up. Then when I remembered why he wasn't coming and why he never would I always ended up crying. 

Eric Jaff had disappeared, but Calla and Jak where still there. They fought for real now, yet I was still grateful that Eric's replacement, Jarrel, was a member of the Rebellion. The other new pilot, Mora, was incapable of replacing Han, even as a pilot, let alone as a friend. Her flying lacked all traces of grace and style. It was obvious she was surviving through luck. Mora's idea of tactics was to get as close to the enemy ship as possible, then blast them. Even Jarrel couldn't really replace Han. We flew as a team, but I could never depend on him to supply the inspiration that had characterized everything Han did. Jarrel had learned standard maneuvers, and he used them with incredible precision, but he was appallingly predictable. His reply to any tactic was a classical one, that meant if he ever fought someone who knew the classical responses Jarrel wouldn't last long enough to wonder what went wrong. But within his limits Jarrel was a good pilot. 

============================================================== 

The door to my quarters was enthusiastically slammed shut behind the tall gangly girl who had just entered. 

"How are ya doing!" Mora greeted me, pushing her long unruly black hair back from her face. 

I glared at her silently. 

Mora searched through the litter of hair sprays, shampoos, conditioners, brushes, barrettes, and other devices for controlling her dark hair. 

"We've been roommates for two months Trish," Mora continued, dragging a brush and a heavy clip out of the mess covering her dresser. "Wouldn't it be reasonable for us to talk to one another." 

I flipped over on my stomach and selected a book from the shelf over my bed. 

Mora combed her hair in silence for a few minutes, then located a bottle of detangler and commenced to thoroughly drench her hair and the furniture nearest her. 

"I don't know what I could have done to you," Mora remarked. "You haven't spoken to me since before we met." 

I turned a page in my book, it was a Western, I'd read it before but that didn't matter. After a few more minutes Mora's hair was free of rat's nests and she began fighting to gather it at the nape of her neck. 

"Trish you wouldn't mind helping me with this would you?" she asked, I pretended not to hear her. 

"Now listen to me Trish," She said severely. I kept looking fixedly at my book. Suddenly Mora lunged across her bed and snatched the book from my hands. "That's better. Trish, I know you're upset about something, but I don't think it's me. So do you think it's fair for you to act this way toward me because of something I don't even know about?" 

I got up and started to leave the room, Mora grabbed me by the shoulders, "You're behaving like a little kid Trish!" She yelled. "Now I'm going to put with it for one more week, then you're at least going to tell me what's wrong!" 

She released me, I think Mora was hoping I would stay and tell her about Han. Instead I when to find Jarrel, practicing would occupy my mind. 

============================================================== 

Jarrel's ship, a Z-95, swung into my sight just like I knew it would. 

"Jarrel," I yelled, "Can't you ever do something original." 

"I'm doing the right thing," he replied angrily. "Haven't you read your manual, that maneuver always protects you from a rolling dive!" 

"Unless I know you're going to Split-S, then I just pull out of the dive early, and blow you to smitterines!" 

"But the manual says that if you try a rolling dive you shouldn't pull out of it until you reach the Troposphere," Jarrel objected. "You weren't even in the lower Stratosphere." 

I groaned, "Jarrel, forget about the manual, try thinking for a change. You follow the manual so well that I know exactly what you're going to do before you know it." 

"The manual tells you the best response for any attack," Jarrel replied. 

"Alright, if the manual's so great, why do I always win!" I yelled. 

"Because you don't do what the manual says you will," Jarrel shouted angrily. 

"So why don't you stop doing what the manual says you should do, as well, maybe then I won't have to work so hard to protect you in a real battle." 

"If you think I'm liability in a battle maybe we should stop flying as a team!" Jarrel snapped heading back to the landing field. 

"Wait a second Jarrel," I yelled. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that you would be a much better pilot if you didn't follow the manual so closely. The manual is for beginners and you're not a beginner any more, you need to develop your own strategies now." 

"I happen to think that my flying is just about perfect now," Jarrel remarked coolly. 

"Fine," I yelled, "Get yourself killed, see if I care!" 

Now what was I suppose to do? I needed a partner, and Jarrel was the best pilot in the wing, other than myself. I couldn't ask Calla or Jak, since they already flew in a team. And Jarrel had been a great partner. I mean I always knew what he was going to do, so I could always make a plan that would work without consulting him. 

Why'd I have to go and insult him. It wasn't his fault he wasn't as good as Han. No one except Anakin was that good. And Anakin was lightyears away. 

============================================================== 

The raider struck the next day. Without a partner I wasn't doing nearly as well as I could have been. 

I was chasing one ship when a second dropped in behind me. It was a trick Han and I had used a hundred times, but I'd never had to worry about it getting used against me before. It only worked if you could find a lone ship. I couldn't deal with both ships at the same time, because if I tried to get my laser sights on the one in front of me, the one behind me would have his sights on me. Suddenly Mora's ship swooped down on the second ship. When I saw it burst into flames, I took care of the one in front of me. 

"Thanks," I said hesitantly. 

"None necessary," Mora replied. "We ought to work together more often." 

"There's another one," I exclaimed. Mora's ship twisted to the right with a sudden painful motion, I winced in sympathy for her ship. Amateurish as the maneuver was, it got the job done. 

After the battle, Mora and I returned to our quarters. I wasn't quite sure what to do. After talking to her during the battle it seemed strange to sit in silence now. 

"I'm sorry about how I've been acting toward you," I began. "Your not nearly as bad a pilot as I thought you were." 

"That's not much of a compliment," Mora remarked. "But it's a big improvement from not speaking to me at all." 

"I'll try to do better in the future," I replied. "In the meantime would you mind if we practiced flying together?" 

"Maybe, sometime, when I haven't just finished fighting a battle." Mora answered. 

============================================================== 

Almost overnight a second political party appeared to contest every decision the Rebel Government made. They called themselves the CRMC (Committee of Right Minded Corellians). There were rumors that the CRMC had had people who stood in their way killed. Many Rebels took this rumor quite seriously. I did as well. 

The Rebels reacted by setting up stricter security measures and screening programs that insured only people loyal to the Rebel Government would be given important jobs. I help to set up one such program in our Starfleet. 

I hated the CRMC, for now the government couldn't risk the complete openness that had characterized its earlier dealings. Now both the Rebels and CRMC's were rushing to perfect wiretaps, bugs, and other secret devices for recording what the other said and did. 

Secret codes were devised for transmitting sensitive material. I hated what was happening, but it was all the CRMC fault. Once the government had rid itself of them everything would be alright again. 

I was delighted when a law was passed that would allow the Rebels to deal more harshly with CRMC spies. 

"What are you thinking about," Mora asked. "Suddenly you look so serious." 

"I was thinking of the CRMC's," I sighed. "Why did they have to come and ruin everything?!" 

"If the Rebel government is so delicate that its first competitor destroys it, maybe it's better off destroyed," Mora replied. 

"Oh don't worry! CRMC isn't going to destroy the Rebel Government, but their forcing it to change, to become harder," I answered her, my voice becoming rough and angry. 

"Relax Trish, I'm not attacking your precious Rebel government. I was just making an impartial observation. And you're wrong, CRMC is destroying the Rebel Government. I know they'll never actually conquer the planet, but they are forcing the Rebel Government to fight them on CRMC's level. After awhile the only difference between the two will be the name." 

"Mora, that's not true! The Rebel Government will root out CRMC and destroy it, then everything will be perfect!" I insisted. 

"I thought getting rid of the Colonists was all it was going to take to make Corellus a paradise," Mora commented sadly. 

"Let's fly," I ordered harshly. 

Mora shrugged, "We might as well." 

In silence we walked to our ships. Mora had been given a Silver Sparrow, an extremely streamlined, agile ship. The Rebel government had bought it from a smuggling operation. 

Mora's flying had improved rapidly since I had started helping her. Now she flew with a certain smoothness. It was nothing compared to the effortless grace that Han's flying had always shown, but Mora no longer looked like an amateur. 

In the distance I could see Jarrel practicing. His flying was as text book perfect as it was predictable. Already Mora could have beaten him two times out of three. Mora had always had spontaneity and imagination, and I had taught her enough to destroy any element of surprise Jarrel might have had. 

"Ready to mix it up?" I asked. 

"Completely," Mora replied. 

I reached around my seat to activate the practicing equipment that had been installed when I returned from the war at Kaydose Pass. The equipment tied into my ship's sensors and weapons. It weakened my lasers until they were little more than a tracer beam. When that tracer beam hit anther ship with the same equipment that ship's damage sensors would react as if the tracer had been a real laser. 

Mora and I had been flying side by side, now we split. When we were about 100 meters apart the match started. Mora, playing on her ships greater mobility, avoided my laser fire, but due to my speed she couldn't manage to score herself. The deadlock lasted for several minutes, then Mora tried a hard snap roll, over our open com system I heard the scream of her ship's over-stressed hull. 

"That sounded serious," I commented, "Maybe we should take a break to check out your ship." 

"Fine with me," Mora remarked, "I don't plan to die while practicing for battle." 

A quick inspection of the Silver Sparrow's wings revealed dozens of cracks along the joint to the ship's body. 

"I don't understand what went wrong!" Mora exclaimed, hands on her hips glaring in disgust at her ship. "I've seen that maneuver on the holovision set a million times, I've even seen you do it, without nearly tearing you ship apart." 

"There are a lot of variables involved in what sort of tricks a person can safely use," I reminded her. "The ones you forgot were number one: Altitude, you might be able to get away with that sharp of an about face at a height of three or four kilometers, but you tried it at fifty meters above sea level. The atmosphere is real thick dow here in the cellar. With a delicate ship like yours or mine you don't want to try anything violent. Which brings us to variable two: Different ships can handle different amounts of stress. You fly a Silver Sparrow, a delicate, graceful ship, not a Headhunter. A Headhunter may be legendary for the amount of stress it can handle, but your ship gave that up for greater speed. You've got to remember that." 

"I'll try teacher," Mora remarked smiling shamefacedly. 

"You'd better do more than try," I informed her sharply. "In a battle forgetting could kill you." And I never wanted to watch a friend die again. 

============================================================== 

Walking through town made a person notice how much of a problem the CRMC really was, and how much pressure it was putting on the Rebel Government. 

The cost of the continuing war with the Colonist, (who were still holding out in Kaydose Pass), and dealing with the CRMC had nearly broke the Rebel Government. They had been forced to create new taxes, and raise existing ones to cover the cost. But supporters of CRMC refused to pay these taxes, saying that they "wouldn't finance a government that was destroying them." 

This forced the Rebels to get the money from the CRMC's supporters' property. Unfortunately the proceedures involved in the repossession and sale of property took time and cost money. Then after the property was sold the Rebel Government couldn't get any more money out of it. And with fewer people to pay taxes, those that did were forced to pay more money. No one likes paying money, and when the Rebel Government began making them pay a lot of money, more and more people became receptive to the CRMC's honeyed lies. It was becoming a disastrous spiral. 

With so many businesses closed and taxes so high there simply weren't enough jobs or money to go around. The people who didn't have jobs started harassing those who did. By now it was impossible to find a place in town where the shouting of rioters couldn't be heard. 

Soon the Rebel Government was showing signs of becoming paranoid, such as riot control which consisted of shooting the rioters. But even these extreme measures didn't stop people from rioting, they had nothing better to do. The rioters demanded jobs, lower taxes, sometimes even an end to the Rebel Government. (Lots of the last kind of rioters were killed.) 

Most people didn't see that everything would be much better if we all gave the Rebel Government the support it needed. The Rebel Government was at war with the people it was trying to help, because they wanted improvements NOW and wouldn't give the Rebel Government a chance to find its feet. I had vowed to support the Rebel Government, no matter what. The trouble it was having adjusting to it's new circumstances only reinforced that plegde 

Mora on the other hand, had never had much faith in any government, and when we were ordered to help control the rioters her belief in the Rebel Government dropped to a new all time low. Firing on the rioters made Mora feel sick and miserable. When we returned from the riots she would go to our room and cry, because of the deaths she had caused, because the planet was falling apart while she watched, and most often because she felt trapped and helpless. 

Mora told me she had felt like this when the Colonists had been in control, and she hadn't cracked up like this. She was really confused by how severely she was reacting. I thought I understood why though. While the Colonists where in control Mora had never really believed that things would improve, but like a lot of other people she had expected everything to be wonderful when the Rebel Government took control. When it didn't happen as easily as she expected, Mora got even more depressed than she had been before there was any hope for improvement. 

I had felt the same way when Han died. At first I had felt awful because I knew he wouldn't make it. Then his ship had flown out of the compound and everything seemed wonderful. When he lost control of the Headhunter I felt so much worse than I had before that there wasn't even a word to describe it. 

I guess hopes that don't come true are a lot worse than no hope at all. 

That's why the Rebel Government had to work out. It had to succeed. I had placed all of my hopes in it, and I didn't think I could stand to loose that hope. So no matter how bad things looked, I had to keep on believing that the Rebel Government would succeed in the end. 

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	3. Candra

**Finding A Path - Candra**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

"Obi-Wan, I'm scared," I confessed. "Anakin's changed so much since meeting Senator Palpatine. All he talks about now is power." 

"I know, it frightens me also," Obi-Wan replied. "Now almost all I teach him is Jedi philosophy, but he is not interested. All he wants to learn is how to tap the Force's power. I believe he experiments with it now. Anakin won't be patient, he wants the power now, knowledge can wait. I fear his impatience and experimenting will lead him to the Dark Side." 

"If Anakin actually turns, would he try to recruit others to the Dark Side?" My voice shook uncharacteristically as I asked. 

"What others do you worry for?" Obi-Wan asked, concern showing both in his face and in his voice, "Although," he continued, "Unless these others had the potential to use the Force I doubt he would concern himself with them." 

I knew Obi-Wan was trying to calm my fears, but in truth that bit of information had only made them worse. "I have heard that the ability to use the Force is passed on genetically," I continued hesitantly. 

"It is," Obi-Wan replied. "Candra what are you trying to tell me?" 

"I'm pregnant. That's why I came, to surprise Anakin, but when I got here and he had changed so much I got scared." 

"Did you tell him?" 

"No, I hardly knew him any more." 

"If we do loose him to the Dark Side it would be best if he never found out about this," Obi-Wan stated darkly. "Is their any place you can stay till your child is born?" He asked. "And do you know of anyone who could raise the child without Anakin's knowledge?" 

"Yes, I know of such a place and person, but Obi-Wan, what if we're wrong, what if Anakin doesn't loose himself?" 

"Candra," Obi-Wan replied, "This is definitely a case where you'd rather be safe than sorry." 

"Alright, I'll be on Alderaan with Senator Organa. If anything happens contact me," I requested. 

"I will Candra. The old Anakin Skywalker is still present. He is being drowned by this new persona, but there is a chance to draw him back to us," Obi-Wan reassured me. 

============================================================== 

A few weeks later, I was explaining my request to Bail and Cora Organa. Cora had been like an older sister to me while I was growing up, and even though my need for secrecy confused both her and Bail she promised me what I asked. 

Everyone at the Alderian court was told I was Cora's cousin, and that my husband had been killed in a skimmer accident. I wore black to keep in character. The mourning garments seemed appropriate, for if Anakin was truly lost to the Dark Side, he was dead. 

Court life was dull and gave me much too much time to worry about Anakin and the future. 

Obi-Wan's weekly reports weren't hopeful. Anakin was angry all the time now. He had told Obi-Wan he had a new Jedi Master, one who wasn't scared of the Force's power. Anakin rarely left Palpatine's side anymore. 

"Candra, don't you think it's time you told me what's wrong?" Cora asked. She was leaning against the doorjamb, her arms crossed over her chest. 

"General Kenobi and I have been forced to conclude that Anakin Skywalker has fallen under the influence of Senator Palpatine." My voice was cold and distant. 

"He's not the only one," Cora sighed, "Lan and Cal haven't been the same since they were selected for his program. Now they seem like echoes of the Senator. Any little thing can cause them to loose their tempers. They don't have any common sense or compassion anymore." (To my thinking Lan and Cal had always lacked common sense and compassion, but I could hardly say that to Cora.) 

"Also Bail says that Palpatine has been nominated as the head of the council, and he's allied enough of the more ambitious councilors to actually win. No one knows how he does it, but everything Palpatine proposes soon becomes fact. Anyone he turns his attention on is eventually bent to his will. Afterward they can rarely explain what prompted them to take the action that they took." 

"How much power does Palpatine actually wield?" I asked. 

"No one really knows, but I don't feel comfortable about the amount of power he openly wields, let alone the rest," Cora answered sadly. 

Bail entered just in time to hear this last exchange, "My wife," he began, "As long as Senator Palpatine has the power of speech he has enough power to discomfort me." 

"He does cause quite a bit of trouble with that alone," Cora acknowledged, "But still Palpatine's influence isn't enough of a threat to justify hiding from a person." 

"Palpatine isn't the only reason I worry about Anakin," I whispered, "Anakin was being trained as a Jedi Knight, General Kenobi thinks he's been turned to the Dark Side." 

A look of stunned understanding entered Bail and Cora's faces. "I had heard rumors that Palpatine was a Dark Jedi," Bail commented softly, "I had never credited them before." 

My eyes widened, so Palpatine himself was Anakin's new Master, things were even more serious than I had feared. 

============================================================== 

By the time the twins were born there remained little doubt that Anakin was lost to us. Even Obi-Wan seemed to have given up. He told me that the twin's safety was of more importance. To protect them Obi-Wan wished to separate them. I had told him to take Luke to Anakin's sister Beru and her husband Owen. Owen was a farmer on Tatooine, a very out of the way planet. Owen and Anakin had never gotten along, I hoped this would keep Luke safe. 

I would keep Leia with me on Alderaan. 

Obi-Wan planned to come for Luke shortly after the twins' first birthday. I knew that separating the twins would help to insure their safety, but I still wanted to keep both close to me, where I knew they were safe. 

============================================================== 

"Come on Candra," Cora suggested, "Lets take the twins and go shopping." 

I looked up, surprised at her suggestion, I hadn't left the place since I had arrived on Alderaan. 

"You should come," Cora insisted, "It's not good for you to hide in your room brooding all the time." 

Eventually I gave in to her and it wasn't long before we were strolling through one of Alderaan's major market complexes. We wandered through a variety of shops buying things for ourselves and for the twins. Cora made shopping more fun than I could have imagined. 

As we left the market complex, Cora noticed a group of Republic soldiers breaking into a small warehouse. 

"What in the galaxy are they doing!" Cora exclaimed. "I know the owner of that building, he'd never be involved in anything illegal!" 

"What are you doing?" I asked as Cora rushed toward the warehouse. 

"I'm going right over there to demand that their commanding officer explain what he's doing!" Cora replied angrily. "And the force help him if it he doesn't have a good explanation." 

Just as Cora finished speaking the Commander stepped through the shattered doorway and my heart jumped into my throat. The black battle armor he wore made him seem inhuman, and a dark shadow appeared to hover over him. Anakin's features were so hardened I barely recognized him. 

Suddenly he glanced toward Cora and I. His cobalt blue eyes had always been cold but now they might have been chips of ice for all the warmth in them. 

I grabbed Cora and dragged her back into the Market entrance. "Candra, what's wrong?" Cora asked worriedly, "You look like you've seen a ghost!" 

"It's him!" I exclaimed. 

"Who?" Cora asked, confused. 

"Anakin," I answered, my voice no longer steady. 

"Here?" 

I nodded, "He was the commander of those soldiers." 

Anakin's caped form approached us. "Cora, take Luke and Leia, lose yourself in the market for awhile, then go home and tell Obi-Wan what's happened." 

"But what are you..." 

"Go!" I hissed. 

She disappeared into the crowds just as Anakin reached me. 

"Who were you talking to?" He demanded coldly. 

"An old friend from school," I answered smiling, in what I hoped was a calm manner. "What are you doing here?" I asked still holding on to that smile. 

"It has come to Senator Palpatine's attention that some of the people of this planet have neglected to acquiesce to some of the laws the council has passed. I am here to rectify the situation." As I listen to Anakin speak I began to understand Obi-Wan's talk of Anakin losing himself. Whoever this dark stranger was, he was not the man I had loved. Then to my complete surprise a trace of the old Anakin crept into his eyes. 

"Candra," He said as it he had just recognized me. "How long has it been since I last saw you?" 

A couple of months over a year," I answered, my smile coming more easily as the darkness around him receded a little. 

"Why are you here?" Anakin asked, the chill returning to his voice. 

"I was lonely, I came to visit Cora Organa," I answered. 

"I would like you to leave the planet with me," His voice made it an order. 

"I'll have to say goodbye to Cora first," I stalled. 

"Senator Organa is a one of Senator Palpatine's greatest enemies. I do not want you to associate with him or his wife." 

"Why not?" I challenged. 

The coldness in Anakin's face was replaced with confusion, "Senator Palpatine is going to destroy all his opposition, I-I don't want you caught up in that." 

"Bail and Cora are our friends, we don't want them to get hurt either," I suggested. 

Anakin's eyes hardened again, "They are Palpatine's enemies." 

"But not ours!" I insisted. 

"Palpatine's enemies are my enemies, and yours as well," he remarked coldly. 

"That's not true Anakin, Palpatine is a dangerous trouble maker you were sent to keep an eye on!" I insisted. 

"Palpatine is the true power in the Republic, and he is the only Jedi not afraid to use the Force's whole strength," Anakin was coldly furious. 

"When did you start caring so much about power?" I demanded. "Anakin, you used to care about friends, about helping people simply because they needed your help. People like that little boy on Corellus. You cared about doing the right thing, Anakin!" 

"I wonder how Han's doing," Anakin commented softly. 

I smiled happily and took his hand, "This is the person I love, the one who cares about people not power. I was afraid I'd lost him." 

Anakin looked down at our joined hands then up at my face. A small uncertain smiled pulled at the corners of his lips. I now knew that he wasn't hopelessly lost. Anakin loved me, and I could lead him back to the light. 

A youngish solider rushed up. He glanced at me as if he believed I was crazy, then turned his attention to Anakin. "Commander, we're finished at the ware house," He stammered, "What are your orders?" He was obviously terrified of Anakin, I wondered what Anakin could have possibly done to inspire such fear in his subordinates, then decided I'd rather not know. 

"Excellent, prepare to leave this planet," Anakin ordered. 

"Yes sir!" The young man replied, scurrying off to do just that. 

Anakin led me after him. 

============================================================== 

On the ship Anakin continued to show flashes of his old self, but the closer we got to Palpatine the rarer those flashes became. 

He obviously cared a great deal about the Corellian boy, Han Solo. I wished Han was here. The more people around that could reach Anakin's true self the better. 

I learned that Palpatine had turned Anakin fully against Obi-Wan destroying their new friendship, and I was afraid that once the Senator realized I could help Anakin return to his true self he would try to destroy our love as well. 

============================================================= 

My first glimpse of Senator Palpatine shocked me. Anakin was just cutting off the communication, and I wasn't sure I could trust my impressions, for the Senator was not the terrifying dark creature I had expected. He was a somewhat frail, withered old man. The first time I met him in person showed my original impression was both right and wrong. Physically he was exactly as I had first thought him, but out of his dark sunken eyes shown a twisted hatred the strength of which I had never before imagined. And even more terrifying was his calm manner that seemed to say all was as he wanted it. 

"Master," Anakin greeted this loathsome, terrifying creature, dropping to one knee as he said it. 

Palpatine paused for a second, staring at Anakin's kneeling form, a strangely satisfied smile forming on his thin, dark lips. "You may rise," He finally stated, his gaze shifted to me, his eyes brightened angrily as he noted Anakin's hand resting gently on my shoulder. "Who is this?" he demanded sulkenly. 

Anakin flinched slightly, and he stepped away from me, "She is my wife, Candra." 

"You are emotionally connected to her, she weakens you," Palpatine stated in the tone of a reprimand. 

"How may I correct this?" Anakin asked. 

"Destroy her!" Palpatine ordered coldly. 

"No!" Anakin exclaimed, a look of horror entering his face. I stepped forward and took his arm. Anakin glanced down at me, and I smiled a small smile, with hope and fear making up equal parts of it. 

"I'm sorry, I can't," Anakin continued, still looking at me. 

"Then go," Palpatine snarled, "Leave the power." 

Anakin hesitated and I knew I had to tip the balance in my favor. "We could stop by Corellus on our way home," I suggested hopefully. 

Anakin smiled softly at me, "That would be great," He said, turning away from Palpatine. 

"If you leave I'll destroy you, your world, the girl, everything you care about will be destroyed!" Palpatine raged. 

Anakin froze, his fear of the Senator showing in his entire body. I tugged gently on his arm. 

"Yes, you know that I possess the power to do that," Palpatine purred. "That power I am willing to share with you, but if you turn it down, that same power will destroy first that which you care for, then you." 

"Please let us go from this place," I begged. 

That's when Palpatine threw down his ace, "I would be satisfied if you simply sent the girl away." 

Anakin turned back to Palpatine, "Anakin, I don't want to be sent away from you," I pleaded. 

"Think of the power Skywalker, think of the consequences of leaving," Palpatine demanded silkenly. 

"I'll take her home then return," Anakin promised. 

"You have neglected your training to long already," Palpatine objected. "The girl can make the voyage on her own." 

"Anakin, I don't like traveling by myself," I reminded him. 

"Disobey me and you will loose the power," Palpatine hissed. 

Anakin looked between me and Palpatine, "Candra, I'll assign someone to escort you home," He promised miserably. 

I sighed sadly. I had come so close, so very close. "When will you come see me?" I asked, wanting to know how long before my next chance to take him back from Palpatine. 

"As soon as I can possibly get away," Anakin replied. In the background Palpatine chuckled softly, I had a feeling that Anakin would be stuck here till it was much too late to help him. 

============================================================== 

I waited for Anakin at my parent's home for eight months. Then I returned to Alderaan, I wanted to see Luke one last time before Obi-Wan took him to Tatooine, and I was determined to take part in raising Leia. 

I left a message with my parents telling Anakin where to reach me but I feared that it was hopeless to expect him to come. 

============================================================== 

As it turned out Obi-Wan and I reached the planet the very same day. 

"Where have you been?" He asked. 

"Anakin came, he was worried that I'd get into trouble on this planet. He took me to meet Palpatine, then sent me home. I had hoped he would keep his promise and visit me, but after eight months it didn't seem likely." I explained. 

"Does he know about the twins?" Obi-Wan asked worry evident in his voice. 

"He doesn't have the faintest clue," I replied. 

Obi-Wan relaxed. "I'll be glad to meet them today. The ability to be a Jedi varies in strength and sometimes is only passed on in a latent form. I have often wondered how the ability manifested itself in the twins." 

"I just want to see them," I commented. 

============================================================== 

My greatest fears, and I believe, Obi-Wan's greatest hopes were confirmed, the instant he met the twins. The General reported that both had the potential to become Jedi Knights. 

Obi-Wan let me spend the day watching and playing with the twins. I was disappointed that neither really remembered me, but maybe that was for the best, since it would be many years if I ever saw Luke again. 

The next morning Obi-Wan and Luke left for Tatooine. 

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	4. Han

**Finding A Path - Han**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

The feel of ice cold water spraying into my face, thourgh the the headhuntered's cracked canopy, shocked me back into consciousness. Through some bit of unbelievable luck my fighter had soft landed in what looked like an ocean, even more luckily I had come down within sight of land. 

I began searching the cockpit for something that would float, my miracle landing had probably used up all my luck for a very long time, so I didn't want to risk drowning on the swim to the shore. 

The only thing that I could find that could possibly be lighter than water was the chair's cushions. After struggling to tear the cushions off for a few minutes it broke away all at once throwing me back against the eject button. The hatch popped off and a wave of frigid water washed over my head. A second later the seat ejected. I didn't know how ejecting from a ship under normal circumstances felt, but if it even faintly resembles how I felt after that time, I'd rather go down with my ship. 

Somehow I maintained my hold on the seat cushion through the ejection process. I took me several hours to swim/float to land but when I did, I was shocked to see that beyond the beach was a nearly endless meadow of some sort of tall yellowish grass. I'd never seen any thing like it before. 

I didn't worry very long about my unfamiliar surroundings. I was too tired from my long swim, and the beach was too warm to permit worry. I guess I slept for about an hour, but that was a wild guess. My chrono hadn't been water tight and no longer worked. More importantly neither did my blaster. This left me in a place I'd never seen before with the clothes I was wearing (which were still slightly damp) and nothing else. To make matters worse, there wasn't a sign of civilization. That was a shock, an old friend of mine had always complained that there wasn't a single spot on this planet that hadn't been ruined by humans, (In his vocabulary ruined and signs of civilization were synonymous.) This was a really bad time for Andy to be proved wrong about that. I lived in cities and in my fighter. I wasn't sure if I could handle this. But it would take me only a day or two to find some people. Even so I knew I'd need to find drinkable water soon. 

I'd been told that all rivers eventually ended up in the oceans so my surest bet on finding fresh water would be to walk along the beach until I found a river. I might even try fishing. I'd heard people could eat fish if they cooked them. 

The next morning I was beginning to realize that there weren't many rivers in this part of the world. I'd walked all night without running into one, and by now I was getting fairly thirsty. The only change in the landscape was that I was walking by some sort of inlet rather than the ocean. It wasn't a river. I'd tasted the water and it was still salty. The inlet was shallow and scattered with small islands. Gradually it became narrower and by noon it had turned into a river. With water at hand I decided to take a break and try fishing. 

First I'd need string and a hook. While I was searching for those things I found the foundation of an old house. It must have been deserted for a long, long time. There was a full grown tree in one of the rooms. The only thing still recognizable was a large stone fire place, and beside it stairs leading down to a cellar. 

I decided fishing could wait, exploring was more fun. The stairs led to a store room. I couldn't tell much more about it, it was too dark, but I didn't want to give up on this. Everything I'd seen so far made me think I was a long way from any other people and the stuff in that store room might be the difference between getting home or not. 

Carefully I made my way deeper into the room, feeling the contents of it's numerous shelves. When I had my arms full I headed back to the stairs and daylight. My first five or six trips produced some interesting stuff but nothing incredibly useful. The best things were a pack for carrying future finds, several blankets and two knives. I think the knives were meant for cooking but with a little work they'd make halfway decent weapons. On my next trip I found a tin box of little sticks that were painted on one end. On the box it said: "Strike Anywhere Matches." I decided to follow instructions, I picked up one `match' by the painted end and scratched it across the fireplace, nothing happened, so I turned it around and tried again. This time the `match' caught fire. Smiling I put the `matches' in my pack, they were my best find yet. 

During the afternoon I found several bags of dried fruit, the fruit tasted much better than fish possibly could. Obviously my luck hadn't run out quite yet. 

By evening a large pile of stuff that was ruined, useless, or incomprehensible lay on one side of the door. On the other side was a tiny pile that I wanted to take with me. That night I filled my new canteen at the river, then headed back to the house to sleep. The next morning I ate some more of the fruit and went back to my search, with the `matches' and a make-shift torch it went much faster. 

In the back of the cellar I found a rack of old projectile weapons. Fortunately the ammo was stored right beside them. (This arrangement of things made a lot of sense, but I couldn't count on the people that had arranged this room to be sensible. Can openers weren't stored anywhere near the canned foods.) I ended up selecting a weapon about the same size and weight as my blaster, then I picked up several boxes of ammo and headed up stairs. Luckily the gun was loaded, so I didn't have to experiment with that part of using my new weapon. 

For the first forty shots or so the gun's recoil threw off my aim. I hated wasting so much ammo but it wouldn't be of much use to me if I couldn't hit what I aimed at. 

Around lunch time I went back to look for the can-opener, I was tired of eating dried fruit for every meal. I found the can-opener by a box of lanterns. Luckily the lanterns had instructions with them. Even so it took me all afternoon to light one of the stupid, primitive things. 

That evening I found a map of the area where I had crashed. I also found a tourist brochure. The brochure told me I was in Jotorus Range, and it told me my ancestors had been crazy. With nothing more than the stuff in this camping supply store, (the brochure told me that's what this building used for) they would go live in Jotorus for a week or two, and they did it for fun! 

On second thought this place wouldn't be so bad if I had some company, an easy way to get home, and nowhere else that I had to be. But at the moment I was stuck here all by myself with no idea of how the Rebellion was doing. 

After I read the brochure I added it to the pile of useless things, and stuck the map in my pack. 

I spent about a week at the store practicing with my gun, experimenting with different pack sizes, and deciding what I was going to bring. I ended up with a medium sized pack filled with a map, a compass, as much dried food as possible, a length of rope, a first aid kit, one blanket, a box of matches, and a stone for sharpening the knife, which I had tucked into my boot. I also carried a largish canteen, a pair of binoculars, and my new gun. I traded my boots for a pair more suitable for hiking, but other than that I kept my own cloths. 

The next day I started out for Kaydose Pass. I soon realized that in its own way Jotorus was as attractive as the carefully designed parks that dotted the cities of Corellus. Unscheduled rain storms were a less pleasant surprise though. After the first one, I returned to the store for a slicker. But even the weather was fun, in a way. It was a new experience not to know what the weather was going to be like. 

Because of the map I didn't have to follow the river, but occasionally I overestimated the distance I could walk in a day, or underestimated the among of water I'd need. This made for several near calls, but I slowly improved. After several annoying sunburns I learned to sleep in the day and walk nights when I crossed the Range's huge meadows. 

My food supplies were supplemented by animals I managed to shoot. I didn't know anything about animals, so I was finding them more through my amazing luck than anything else. I made sure to pay close attention to where and when I found an animal, and I studied the bodies of the animals I shot. Gradually skill took the place of luck. Now I could trace most of the hoofed animals, as long as they stayed on soft ground. When I started this I couldn't have told which way the animal was heading without actually seeing it. Learning about this world was a lot more fun than I had ever dreamed it would be. Somehow I found myself slowly wandering in the general direction of Kaydose Pass, rather than rushing to get back. I always had a good explanation for taking my time, (such as: I was hunting) but deep down I knew I was just enjoying Jotorus. Telling myself I had a war to get back to never managed to hurry me along. 

Sometime after I lost track of exactly how long I had been in Jotorus I had my first meeting with one of the Range's larger meat eaters. I was trying to fish again and didn't see it until the cat attacked me. My flight suit probably saved my life. The suit was made of a special material to protect me from being injured if some of my ship's equipment were to explode. It turned out to be too tough for the cat's claws to rip through immediately. That gave me a chance to grab my gun, I couldn't aim it at the cat, but the noise did scare it off. After that I tried to keep an eye out for such animals. 

============================================================== 

A few days after the cat incident I came to a new type of terrain. On the map this area was called Labyrinth, and it was one. I never would have believed such a maze of canyons could have been created by nature. On the back of the map was a close up of this section of the range. The close up indicated that there was plenty of water so I started in. 

The map wasn't as accurate as it might have been a century or two ago. Since it had been drawn rock slides had blocked off some routes and landmarks had been altered or disappeared altogether. Luckily there were thousands of small streams running all over the place. 

Several day's into the maze I heard a strange scream. I'd never heard anything like it before, so I follow it to its source. It turned out to be an injured horse. I knew it was a horse because I had seen a movie with a horse in it once. Trish had picked the movie. I prefer to see ones with a lot of space battles, but Trish liked Westerns, so I had to humor her every now and then. I was glad I had now, if I hadn't I wouldn't have known horses could be ridden, and it wasn't supposed to take long to tame them, especially if the horse was in trouble. 

This horse was trapped by a rock slide. If it had been uninjured the horse probably could have scrambled out of the dead end canyon, but it had an ugly gash on it's left foreleg. There wasn't any grass or water in the dead end and the horse looked pretty weak. I didn't think it could drink out of my canteen so I started looking for a different way to take water to it. I hadn't brought any cooking pots with me, and didn't have anything to pour the water in. 

I began walking around the horse's prison looking for something to put water in. On one rim of the canyon I found something that would work much better than a trough for getting water to the horse. It was a small stream running parallel to the canyon. With a little work I could change it so that the stream would run into the canyon. 

I started by blocking off the stream with some rocks, but the stream just started forming a pool. I needed to raise the stream's bank on the side away from the canyon. I piled some more rocks along side of the stream. There were a lot of leaks in my dam but most of the water was going sort of where I wanted it to. After awhile the water began trickling down into the canyon. It didn't take long for the horse to notice the water, it limped to the new pond at the base of my small waterfall and began drinking the water. 

While it drank I took my first close look at the horse. It was a light dusty brown color with white markings on it's legs. Now the horse needed food. There was some grass growing by the stream. I sighed tiredly, already this horse was more work than the movies had lead me to believe. It seemed to take forever to cut an armful of grass, but eventually it was done. Carefully I made my way into the canyon, trying not to drop any grass. 

When I reached the canyon floor I dropped the grass and took a step or two back. Then I waited for the horse. I must have waited for several hours. The horse, who I named Dusty, was much more interested in the water, and because the stream was fairly small and not all the water made it to the canyon it took Dusty forever to get enough to drink. 

I must have fallen asleep after a time. I woke up when Dusty finished the grass and started to nibble on my jacket. Before I realized what I was doing, I shoved his head away. Startled the horse limped off to the other end of the canyon. 

A few days later I realized that this wasn't going to be a short stop. Dusty still wouldn't let me get close enough to him to examine his leg, let alone try to ride him. And I was running low on food. 

There was only one thing to do Dusty would have to get along by himself for a day while I hunted. 

The trip took me longer than I expected, and I didn't return to Dusty's canyon until the next morning. The first thing I did when I got back was to cut some more grass for Dusty. Hopefully some would grow in the canyon before long. The next day I started to set up a more permanent camp. I cut several branches off some trees I had found on my hunting trip. I had planned to use them as a tent, Dusty used them as dinner. My knife wouldn't cut though branches too big for Dusty to eat so I gave up on that idea and started looking for a reasonably well sheltered nitch in the rocks. 

Surprisingly as soon as I started ignoring him, Dusty became very interested in what I was doing. He determinedly scrambled after me, even up on to the rocks. But if I paid the slightest attention to him he ran off. I figured Dusty was getting used to me. After several days, he even let me treat his leg. I didn't dare try to ride Dusty yet, I was afraid I'd do further damage to his injured leg. 

============================================================== 

While I was waiting for Dusty to heal our canyon was visited by another of those cat things. That was the first time Dusty did something useful. 

That day I'd been busy working on my shelter. I doubt I would have noticed the cat if Dusty hadn't reacted so strongly to it. He started acting strangely a few minutes before the cat made its appearance. His whole body stiffened, he pawed the ground, then Dusty threw back his head and screamed. Dusty had never acted this way before so I watched him closely to see what else he'd do, which wasn't much. He just stared at the north wall of the canyon. Eventually I looked up that way myself. It didn't take long to spot the cat thing, and shooting it took even less time. 

As a reward for spotting the cat I fed Dusty some of my dried fruit. I found out he liked it after one hunting trip. I'd left my supplies in the Canyon. When I returned Dusty had finished off the open package of fruit. Luckily he hadn't managed to get into any thing else yet. I was glad to find out he liked fruit, because now when he did something right I knew what type of praise he would appreciate. 

I set a few pieces of fruit on the palm of my hand then gingerly held them out to Dusty. He stretched out his neck and within seconds the fruit was gone, and my hand was covered with slobber. I hurried to the waterfall and washed my hands. I had tried other means of giving Dusty treats but none had worked. If I held the fruit with the tips of my fingers I risked losing them. If I put the fruit on the ground, Dusty wouldn't know who had given it to him. So I put up with having my hand slobbered on every now and again. 

As I stood up my hair fell in my eyes. While I'd been in Jotorus Range it had gotten longer, and now it always seemed to be falling in my face or getting tangled in something. I wasn't quite sure how to cut it, but today I decided to try. It was just too annoying to leave it as it was. 

First I carefully cleaned and sharpened my knife. As usual Dusty showed up to watch. Then using my fingers I did the best possible job of combing my hair. After that I spent several minutes wishing for scissors and a friend, or at least scissors and a mirror. That wasn't getting my hair any shorter, so reluctantly I picked up my knife and grabbed a handful of hair. When I finished I peered hesitantly into the pond, not sure I really wanted to see the result of my hair cut. It was every bit as bad as I was afraid it would be. My bangs had disappeared entirely and the rest of my hair went from just covering the tops of my ears near the front to hardly any shorter then it had been when I started in the back. The very best thing I could say about the hair cut was it kept my hair out of my eyes, and it wasn't going to last forever. 

============================================================== 

My next hunting trip was a complete disaster. The problem wasn't my gun's recoil, it wasn't even my lack of skill. It was Dusty's fault! His leg had healed enough for him to leave the canyon and he did. Dusty decided to tag along on my hunting trip. He cheerfully made enough noise to warn any animal within a mile of us. 

The next day I decided to try again. This time I tied Duty up before I left. It took him about ten minutes to break free and follow me. After that Dusty was always wary of me if I was carrying a rope. 

That made up my mind, Dusty was healthy enough to be ridden. So instead of hunting I spent the next several days collecting sores and bruises. The largest problem was that Dusty liked me better on the ground than on his back. The other problem was I'd never ridden a horse before. 

It took me most of a week to get on Dusty's back. The first day I tried pulling myself up with his mane, Dusty reacted by rearing up on his hind legs. Then I tried a running jump, Dusty could run much faster than I could. I tried vaulting on his back, Dusty twisted out from under me. I tried dozens of mounts Dusty had millions of ways to make them unsuccessful. Finally I made I pile of rocks to mount from, after a morning of practicing I was on top of Dusty. 

That lasted all of five seconds. As soon as I landed on his back, Dusty reared up on his hind legs and I slipped off. Every time I got on Dusty's back he promptly returned me to the ground, and every time as I sat in the dust rubbing my newest injury Dusty would come over to laugh at me. 

It only took me a few weeks to realize that Trish's movies had absolutely no basis in the real world. Horses, or at least Dusty hated to be ridden. No matter how friendly Dusty was when I was standing on the ground it didn't mean a thing when I was on his back. 

It took a very long time, and several nearly broken bones to convince me I wanted to walk home, after I had given some of my worst bruises a chance to heal. 

Since I didn't try to ride him again Dusty wouldn't leave me alone. I tried shooing him off but he wouldn't leave. When I left the canyon Dusty was right behind me. I figured he would get bored after a day or two and run off. He did disappear occasionally, but he always came back. Dusty was as useless as the bruises he had given me, but I enjoyed having him around a lot more. Now that we were out of the canyon he took care of himself. Dusty was a great pet, even if he was a rotten mode of transportation. I wasn't sure what I would do with him if he actually followed me out of Jotorus. Here he could come or go as he pleased, but outside of the Range he would become my responsibility. Also I knew the other people in my home city wouldn't appreciate Dusty, and I was fairly certain Dusty wouldn't enjoy living in a city. 

============================================================== 

I finally found a good source of motivation for getting out of Jotorus quickly. The weather had started turning cold. In addition to the fact that I wasn't prepared for cold weather, this change of seasons gave me another reason to hurry. I had crashed here in early Spring. Now it had to be the middle if not the end of Fall. Who knew what was happening outside of Jotorus; inside Jotorus the same thing was happening as had happened for almost a thousand years, nothing. 

The more I though about it the more I hurried. The Rebels could have been destroyed, they could have won, they could be running the planet, or the war could still be going on. Anything could have happened, anything at all. 

It only took one and a half days to get out of Labyrinth now that I set my mind to it. Beyond that were more meadows, which turned into low rolling hills several days later. Water was scarce here, and I had to carefully ration it. I thought Dusty would leave me here, but it was here that my pet showed a second useful ability. In the dry hills, I ended up following Dusty as he lead me from one water hole to the next. Somehow he even understood the general direction in which I wanted to travel. 

I believe it took us three or four weeks to cross the hills. I was trying to think in human measures of time again. During my stay in Jotorus I had begun thinking of a day as when the sun was up and night when it was down. Weeks and months had almost lost meaning for me. Here, doing the same thing day after day, they seemed to run together after awhile. Without a chrono seconds, minutes and hour were just words. But, since I would soon be back in the civilized world I had to start thinking in those units again. 

The hills didn't really end; they were transformed first into bigger, steeper hills, then into mountains. I could see the Kaydose Pass from here. It was a slit in the increasingly towering mountains. As I approached it a buzzing sound became audible. It was vaguely familiar, and my body responded to it as if it were a threat. Many days later I finally identified the sound as the firing of energy weapons. 

The sound of blasters meant that the war with the Colonists was still on, and that whichever side had retreated to Kaydose was at the end of its rope. They weren't defending anything by making a stand at Kaydose. They were just trying to avoid being pushed off the continent. I hoped it was the Colonists who had been driven to this last resort, but if it was that meant that I was trapped behind enemy lines. 

Sneaking close enough to the pass to be sure of the identity of the army holed up in Kaydose would be impossible with Dusty tagging along. And after he had followed me this far I doubted he would quit now. 

I didn't really know where to go from here, so I made camp, and spent the next five days trying to figure out my next move. I knew that I couldn't go into Kaydose Pass without knowing which side controlled it. So I would have to avoid it all together. While Kaydose was the only pass in the Dividing Mountains it didn't mean that one person, on foot had no other way out. And if that way was too hard for Dusty that would be one less thing for me to worry about. The decision was made, so I packed up camp and headed south. 

In the mountains it was cold and food was scarce. One day it even snowed and I still hadn't found a way over them. I couldn't remember the number of times I had found a promising path and followed it. Followed it till Dusty could no longer follow, kept on following it till it was too steep for me. Dusty was always waiting for me when I returned. Eventually I gave up on a trail as soon as it became to steep for Dusty. I didn't want him to starve while waiting for me to come back. 

Now the frost stuck around till mid-morning and I needed a fire at night to keep from freezing. Two weeks later I was forced to stop moving, I was almost out of matches, and to preserve those I had left I kept the fire going all the time. Dusty had a thick wooly coat to protect him from the cold, but I was forced to spend more and more time huddled in my blanket close to the fire. Every afternoon I would venture from my camp to find fire wood, and if I was lucky food, but my luck seemed to finally be running out. So was my ammo. I tried setting some traps, but I'd never done anything like this before, and the traps were usually dismal failures. 

The first heavy snow fall all but put out my fire. After it was over I fixed a torch and moved my camp under a fallen tree I'd noticed while collecting wood. My new camp was a big improvement, the tree protected me, the fire, and Dusty from the wind. 

In one way the snow was a blessing. For the first time in months I didn't have any trouble finding water. Out of sheer boredom I tried to carve a bowl to melt snow in. The end result didn't hold water all that well and the first time I used it, it caught fire. 

============================================================== 

Several days after burning the bowl they found me. I was shocked speechless when I saw them. It had been almost a year since I last saw a human being, and I had never seen people like this before. They wore heavy fur coats and thick mufflers made of a coarse material. Their boots were also made of fur. Besides which, I was nearly starved and half frozen. So I had a good excuse for fainting. 

============================================================== 

I woke up in a well built stone room. A boy who couldn't have been much older than five or six was staring curiously at me. "Mom, he's awake," the boy yelled. 

In answer to the boy's call a woman appeared in the door, She wore a blue dress that was much plainer than any dress I'd seen before. It looked more like everyday clothes than an outfit for special occasions. Her hair was pulled back into a long braid. 

"Where am I?" I demanded. 

"You're in Charis valley," the woman replied. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked. 

"We live here," The woman answered. 

"No one lives in Jotorus!" I exclaimed. 

"We live here," The woman repeated, "We raise goats and farm, I am called Ambelin, who are you?" 

"Han Solo, pleased to meet you," I answered off-handedly. "Why do you live here? I mean Jotorus is a great place to visit, but its so primitive." 

Ambelin laughed at me, "Why do you live here?" 

"I don't, I live in the city of Maris," I answered. 

"Why do you live there?" she asked. 

I couldn't think of any answer so I remained silent. 

"Because you were born there," she answered for me, "Or if not there then someplace very much like it. That's why I live here. I was born in Jotorus and it's much easier to stay here and cope with problems familiar to me than it is to leave the Range. My Great-great-great-grandfather went to your technologically advanced world. He told wonderful stories of ships that sailed to other stars and of people who came from planets other than our own. He also said that it was a very confusing place, and that there were so many people that no one cared about anyone, but a few friends. He said dozens of people could walk by an injured person before anyone would stop to help. 

"He told us of buildings where hundreds of people lived together. How those people never had enough room to get away from one another and so they forgot how precious friends really are. 

"Here our nearest neighboring family lives in the next valley. During the winter we never see anyone besides our own family. Sometimes the snow gets so deep that we can't even leave the house for weeks at a time. All winter everyone makes things like, dishes, material, and useless little trinkets. Then in the spring everyone takes the stuff they made to Markase valley and we trade it with other people. We talk and play games, such as horse racing and archery. It's sort of like a week-long celebration. Some of the trinkets are used as prizes for the games." 

Suddenly a new and frightening though occurred to me, "Did you find Dusty?" I demanded. 

"Who?" 

"My horse, did you find my horse?" 

"He's fine," Ambelin assured me, "But we didn't find him, he found us." 

"What?" 

"Your horse is very protective of you," Ambelin commented. "When we approached you he attacked us." 

"Could I see him?" I asked looking for my boots. I found them at the foot of the bed. 

"Certainly," Ambelin replied. 

She led me through the house, as we went from room to room a group of people gathered around us. Having so many people staring made me uncomfortable. As each new one showed up Ambelin introduced us, but I missed most of the names. 

Dusty was being kept in a hanger bay for horses that was attached to the house. As soon as I entered his stall, Dusty nearly trampled me with his enthusiastic greeting. The family looked on in disapproval as I returned his affectionate greeting. When I had assured myself that Dusty was well cared for and happy, I returned to the house. 

"It's fine for a dog to act like that," Ambelin's uncle, Marcus remarked, "but a horse is a work animal." 

"Dusty isn't a work animal," I objected. "He's never done any work in his life." 

"Why do you keep him then," a little girl asked. "If my dad can't make a horse work he turns it loose again." 

"I don't try to keep Dusty around," I explained, "he just follows me." 

"I found a stray cat that did the same thing," the girl replied. 

"That horse isn't very wild," a boy commented contemptuously, "I could break him in a week." 

"Why would you want to break a horse?" I asked. 

Everyone looked at someone else like they hoped that the other person understood my question. I felt my face getting hot as I began to understand why they didn't understand my question. It was like asking why you need a gravity compensator in a high altitude fighter. The answer was so commonplace that no one ever thought about it. 

Finally Ambelin answered, "Han," she began hesitantly. She didn't sound all too sure that she knew what I was asking either, but someone had to explain. "Breaking a horse isn't like breaking a machine," she paused again. This time I think she was trying to find a comparison I could understand. "It's more like breaking in a new book. It doesn't damage the horse, it just makes the horse easier to work with. The word breaking means teaching a horse to accept being ridden or pulling a wagon." 

"Then why do you call it `breaking a horse?'" I asked. 

"Because when most people do it they break the horse's spirit," A girl with short black hair explained glaring at the boy as she did. She was the only girl in the room not wearing a dress. "They teach the horse that if it doesn't do exactly what a person wants it to then the person will hurt it, because the person breaking the horse doesn't have the patience to teach the horse to want to do something for them." 

"Your way of breaking animals is unpractical, Gwendalin. It takes months to do it, my way takes only a few days," the boy remarked angrily. "My way is quick and practical, what advantage does your method have?" 

"Gwendalin's horses are always more willing to work than yours Alexander," an older man remarked. "If she asked one of her special favorites to do the impossible it would continue trying till it dropped. Would your horses do that?" 

"Thank you Grandfather," Gwendalin commented smiling smugly at Alexander. 

This seemed to be an old argument. But it did teach me something: If I tried to break Dusty, I'd ask Gwendalin to help me. 

"Do any of you know a way out of the mountains?" I interrupted. 

"We'll show you the way out next spring." Ambelin promised. 

"What's wrong with tomorrow?" I wanted to know. 

"Snow will have already covered Future Pass," Gwendalin answered. 

"Well what am I supposed to do all winter!" I demanded. 

Gwendalin turned to two of the adults in the room, "Mother, Father, he can stay with us can't he?" she asked. "I'm sure he has many new stories to tell." 

"You and Alexander are usually on your best behavior when we have company," Gwendalin's mother commented. 

"Gregory found Han," Ambelin remind everyone, "He should stay here." 

"Madalin and I have the most room," Gwendalin's grandfather remarked. 

I stared at them all in disbelief. They were arguing over who I would stay with. Well if I lived in such an isolated place, it might be possible for me to get excited over a guest too. 

In the end it was decided that I would stay with Gwendalin and Alexander's family. They were twins and the only people in the family near my age, so everyone felt I'd be most comfortable with them. The decision was helped by the fact that Gwendalin was the most argumentive of the family, and her grandfather's favorite. 

On the way to their house that night the family formally introduced themselves to me. It turned out that the families in this part of the world took their last name from the valley they lived in. Gwendalin's immediate family consisted of herself and Alexander, and their parents Rosalin and Anthony. 

Alexander had wanted to tie Dusty behind the wagon. "It was the only practical way to get the horse home," he had reasoned. I was beginning to hate the word `practical' when Alexander used it. In this argument I prevailed because Dusty was my horse. So he followed the wagon because he wanted to, not because he was tied there. The horse garage at Gwendalin's house was attached to the rest of the house just like at Ambelin's. I decided Ambelin must have been serious about there being enough snow to trap a person in the house. 

Gwendalin grabbed my arm and led me into a huge open room beyond the horse garage. "This is the goat barn," She explained. Then raising her voice she yelled, "Here goats, come visit." Suddenly we were surrounded by dozens of furry, friendly things that had to be goats. Gwendalin knelt among them trying to pet them all at one time. Alexander stood in the doorway, holding up a rusty lantern. Some of the goats were bumping their heads against my legs. I reached down and began stroking one's head. Immediately another goat pushed it's head under my hand. 

"They like you!" Gwendalin exclaimed. 

"These things are so friendly I assumed that they liked everyone," I remarked. 

"They don't like Alexander," Gwendalin informed me. "But then he doesn't like them either. Alexander doesn't really like any animal." 

"And Gwendalin would like to open our house to all the animals in the mountains so they wouldn't get cold during the winter," Alexander responded. 

============================================================== 

The winter passed quietly. I told stories of the world outside of Jotorus, and was repeatedly surprised by how little they knew of that world. They didn't even know of the Colonists' arrival, let alone of the war we were waging against them. 

I learned to make figures of carved wood from Antony, and Rosalin taught me about the people of the Dividing Mountains. 

It turned out that they had lived here since before written history. The population had always been small. In this area there were about twenty extended families. The largest family was the Trellane family. It consisted of four generations and around sixty people. The oldest family was the Markase family. Most other families were tied to it by marriage. I also learned that the families weren't families in the normal sense of the word. If one of the valleys was hit by a natural disaster of some type, the survivors were taken in by other families. Those survivors usually took the name of their new home valley. Also when several valleys became over-crowded a council would be called, and some of the members of each family would end up getting together and starting a new family in a new valley. The peoples' old families would give the new family supplies and help to open up the new valley. The newest family at this time was the Chicorics who had begun their family only three years ago. The Charis family had existed for five hundred year. They were only two decades younger than the Markases. 

At one time there had been fifty families in this area, but four centuries ago there had been a plague. Usually such a disease would be discovered before it could escape the valley in which it originated, but while this disease was at its most contagious there were no symptoms. That period of contagiousness had coincided with the annual spring celebration. After the plague had burned itself out the survivors had gathered in eight families. The Charises had escaped the plague due to a sickness in their valley that was not so deadly, but still not something they wanted to bring to the festival. Afterward that sickness was declared a blessing in disguise. 

============================================================== 

Alexander and I had disliked each other on first impression. Now that we knew each other better we could each list reasons for that dislike. My list would definitely include how he always acted superior to me. Who cares that he knew more about life in a society centuries behind the rest of the world. And worse yet he even tried to act superior when I talked about High Altitude Fighters. Alexander had never seen, let alone flown, one. 

"Solo, if you're such a marvelous pilot why did you crash?" Alex challenged when I had finished explaining how I had ended up in Jotorus. 

"He was unconscious, Alexander," Gwendalin objected. 

"He wouldn't have been unconscious if he had flown better," Alexander replied. 

"Alex what do you know about flying High Altitude Fighters?" I asked, "could you manage to get one off the ground? Lets not even talk about surviving a high density laser barrage, could you survive landing the ship." 

"I bet I could!" Alexander replied angrily. 

"That's a pretty safe bet," I laughed, "considering the fact you'll never even see a Fighter up here." 

"Please," Rosalin interrupted tiredly, "Han was there, he knows what happened, there is no point in arguing about it." 

I smiled serenely, it was fun to have someone like Rosalin around with whom no one argued. As long as you were right, or better yet, in agreement with Rosalin. 

That night Alexander and I continued our discussion. 

"I would have made that bet if one of your flying ships was sitting right outside." Alex began. 

"Yeah, sure ya would of," I commented sarcastically. 

"What would you have done if it had been that way?" Alexander asked. For a change he just seemed curious. 

"I wouldn't have let you," I replied sincerely. 

"Why not!" he demanded. 

"Because I wouldn't want to be responsible for your death." 

"You said the colonists sent you and the rest of your wing up without training, and you made it." 

"I also said four fifths of us died," I reminded him. 

"You were in a battle," Alexander objected. 

"We grew up using modern technology," I countered, "And a lot of us, especially the one with no prior experience died before anyone gave a thought to landing. Alexander it's not too hard to take off with a fighter, you just activate the propulsion jets and pull back on the control stick, landing is another matter altogether. When you try that you have to fly at the correct velocity for your runway length and angle of descent. When you start flying, you have to depend on you equipment a lot. The first time I tried to land a fighter on my own I ripped off the landing gear because my angle of descent was too steep. I had figured it would be real easy I'd done it with my dad a hundred times. I was lucky, I walked away from that landing with a badly burnt arm and a sprained ankle. I hurt my ankle jumping out of the ship, about ten seconds before it blew-up. The friction between the ship's hull and the runway started a fire. It reached the fuel tanks before the crash crew could put the fire out." I smiled crookedly, "When my dad found out about what happened he was furious. I'm still not sure if he was madder about the damage to the ship or about my awful flying." 

"It's nice to know you're not perfect either," Alexander commented. 

"Have I ever acted like I was?" I asked. "I thought I was pretty open about how little I knew about wilderness survival." 

"Oh yeah, we all know that there wasn't any reason for a hot shot pilot like yourself to know about riding a horse, or any of the other primitive things that we needed to master to live in a place like Charis valley." Alex sounded angry and bitter. 

I hadn't realized Alexander would be offended because I had never needed to know about the things like that in my world. That the rest of the world had progressed beyond horses and homespun yarn was simply a fact. 

I felt like I should say something, but why should I apologize? It wasn't my fault that Charis valley was so backwards. It was a nice place and I was grateful to the people who lived here for saving my life, but they were living in a time warp. 

============================================================== 

The next spring Rosalin and Andrew insisted I stay for the Spring celebration. After hearing abut it all winter it didn't take much to convince me. 

Gwendalin and I had been working with Dusty all winter, and four weeks before the celebration I was finally allowed to ride him. After we spent all that time getting him ready for riding I was certain he wouldn't be any problem at all. With a saddle for me to hold on to, it took Dusty almost a minute to buck me off. Gwendalin talked me into getting back on him again and again until Dusty behaved and until I was a fairly decent rider. 

When we set out for Markase valley, I was riding Dusty. It was surprising to notice that I looked exactly like every other member of the group, from the rough homemade clothing I wore, to the carefully packed bundle of trinkets in my saddle bags. 

The trip took ten days riding and an eleventh walking. We passed though three other inhabited valleys. At each one we picked up another party. Even before we reached Markase Valley I must have been introduced to over a hundred people, and every night I was called on to tell stories about the world outside of Jotorus. Gwendalin help me to decide which of my stories would interest people. 

Every night a huge bonfire was lit at the center of the camp and the various storytellers, singers and other entertainers stood before the fire. I always wondered how I looked when I stood up there. The others were a black silhouette outlined by flames. Their faces were indistinguishable and their voices seemed to come from the fire itself. The firelight gleamed off the musicians' instruments. 

The feeling that surrounded the trip was like nothing I had ever experienced before. These people had so much energy. They were so delighted just to see each other again. I had thought that being separated from friends in the other valleys would cause those friendships to cool slightly, but in reality it seemed to have caused the exact opposite. To these people the few weeks they had with their friends were a far greater treasure than gold. I learned that when you saw a person every day you started to take them for granted. 

At Markase everyone set up their bundle of goods in a spot that pleased them. I wasn't quite sure how this trading would work if everyone had a booth to tend. I asked Gwendalin about it and she explained that some of the people would wander around with a few of their best items for trading. The people who tended booths and the others were constantly shifting. Everyone brought lots of food supplies, which they pooled. Each day different families were put in charge of food preparation. Breakfast, and lunch were sort of a buffet style, and dinner was a barbecue. By dinner time all the booths were shut down and everyone gathered together around a bonfire like we had done on the way here. 

I was a popular speaker here too. Alexander spent a good deal of time explaining that was because I was the only person with news of the outer world that was less than a few hundred years old. 

============================================================== 

I couldn't believe the trades people offered me. My stuff wasn't very good compared to everyone else's. Rosalin told me that everyone had seen the other's work before, but mine was entirely new. That explained why the sketches of starships were such hot items. 

In return for drawings of the thousands of space craft I'd seen while living on a combination spaceport and army base, I received a wood cut of a forest glade, a picture of Dusty that one lady drew for me, a picture of the mountains burned into leather, and a treated skin of one of the cat creatures I'd seen on my trip. Actually I won the fur in a horse race. In archery I won a bow and arrow for being the furthest off the mark. That week was the most fun I ever remember having. 

After the spring celebration was over, Gwendalin and one of her distant relatives, Jamison, guided me to Future Pass. 

Future Pass turned out to be a slit just wide enough for one horse to slip through. On either side of the pass the mountains sharply dropped away, giving me a very good view of two different worlds. Before me were acres of barren fields worked by mindless robots and beyond them were thousands of huge cities. Behind me, Gwendalin and Jamison waited patently for me to get through the pass. Behind them lay the majestic wilderness of Jotorus Range. 

Now that I was really almost home I was scared to leave Jotorus. My fourteenth birthday had taken place a week after I crashed in Jotorus I must be close to fifteen years old now. It had been a year since I had flown a fighter, a year since I'd even seen a city. And I was afraid to go home, but I was also excited. So much would have happened in a year, especially this year. How could I have stay away so long? 

For the first time I realized Trish must think I had died in the crash. I had to get back. I had to let her know I was alright. I urged Dusty into a trot, then quickly brought him to a stop. I couldn't take Dusty to a city, no matter how well behaved he was. 

I dismounted, "Gwendalin," I yelled, "I can't take Dusty with me. Would you take care of him?" 

"You should take him," Gwendalin replied. 

"There wouldn't be any room for him where I live," I objected. 

"How will you get back to your home?" Gwendalin demanded. 

"This is my world, Gwendalin," I reminded her. "I can take care of myself here." 

"Dusty will miss you." 

Angrily I began pulling my supplies off Dusty and arranging them so I could carry them. 

"Han, I don't know if I can stop him from following you," Gwendalin continued, "why can't you make room for him? Dusty is your horse. I've never seen an animal that was so loyal to one person. Why can't you show him some of the same loyalty?" 

I spun to face her, "You say Dusty will miss me if I leave him, but if I take him with me he'll be missing a lot more. He'll miss the grass, room to run, an owner who would have the time to pay attention to him, just to name a few things. I'd love to take Dusty home with me, because if I don't I'll miss him, but I can't. This is where Dusty belongs, not in an asphalt covered city!" I paused, trying to bring my voice back under control. "Gwendalin, I've lived in a city, I know Dusty wouldn't fit in there. You've got to keep him. Please Gwendalin, I know what I'm talking about." 

Gwendalin sighed, "I'll take good care of him." 

A few minutes later I shouldered my supplies and the stuff from the Spring Celebration. I led Dusty to Gwendalin. "Good-bye, I'll miss you." 

I handed her Dusty's reins, "Get a good hold on him." I started to walk away, then turned back, "fair skies, Gwendalin!" When I reached the corner Dusty started after me. Gwendalin pulled back on the reins and commanded Dusty to stop. For a moment he paused. I turned back to my path, about three steps further Dusty started straining to break free from Gwendalin. Resolutely I kept on walking, then Dusty screamed, the startling sound that first led me to him. I turned back, Dusty had reared up on his hind legs, pulling Gwendalin off the ground. Just as I started back Jamison grabbed the reigns below Gwendalin. Together they brought Dusty under control. I turned back and continued on my way. 

It took me until night fall to reach the edge of the endless fields. I camped there that night. Then the next morning I hitched a ride on a planter. Its simple one-track mind plowed on across the field without even noticing my presence. The field was probably close to a mile long, and I appreciated the ride. On the next field the tractor was going the wrong way so I walked it. Eventually I reached a road that headed toward the cities. After about two days of walking I reached a small town. 

While I was in the town I learned that the Rebels had been in control of the government for eleven months, and that I had been gone for fourteen months. 

I was surprised by the number of boarded up buildings I saw, but I couldn't stay long enough to find out what had happened. I had to find Trish. 

I found a skimmer someone had left unlocked, and hot-wired it. With the skimmer, it took me eight days to get back to my home city. In the other cities I had passed through I learned what the Rebel Government was doing. It wasn't at all what I expected. In one town I'd seen how rioters were handled by the Rebel Government. They were shot down in the streets. If I had known what living under the Rebel Government was going to be like I would have joined the raiders and done my best to blow-up the whole planet. I had heard enough about CRMC to know with a hundred percent certainty that they weren't any better than the Rebel Government. I couldn't see any hope for Corellus, and I just wanted to get away. 

I still wanted to find Trish, but now I wanted to get her out of this place too. I had a feeling the Rebel Government would eventually turn on anyone near it. 

I thought about taking Trish back to the Dividing Mountains, but the closer I got to my city the more I realized I wanted to see suns other than the one we orbited. While flying the X-wing I had gotten my first taste of open space, and now whenever my mind wasn't occupied it went back to that time. When you were outside of a planet's atmosphere the stars became an endless array of brightly burning beacons, each one telling you this was where you belonged. Telling you of uncountable unimaginable planets orbiting them. Planets you could see if you left your single solar system behind and accepted deep space as your home. Now I was willing to do just that. Other than Trish there was nothing left on this planet for me. 

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	5. Han

**Finding a Path - Han (cont)**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

"Trish!" I yelled. Startled she turned from the dark haired girl she had been talking to. She scanned the crowd for me. For a second I just stared at her, Trish had changed so much in the past year and little of that change was good. Her long blond hair was a limp lifeless mass, she had lost wight, enough that her bones were plainly visible beneath her skin, her whole body was tense, her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and her movements had become jerky. 

"Here Trish," I yelled, pulling myself together and moving quickly toward her. She looked at me in confusion. Could I have changed so much in a year that she wouldn't recognize me? I glanced in the store window behind her. Rosalin had cut my hair in a style that hid the remains of my eariler hair cut, and it was still a little longer than I used to wear it. My skin was darkly tanned from being out of doors so much, but neither change was that drastic. 

"Hey, don't you recognize me?" I asked smiling. 

"I'm seeing things," Trish whispered, "I've got to get more sleep; I'm so tired my eyes are playing tricks on me." 

"Trish, my fighter soft landed in the ocean off Jotorus. I swam to shore. It took awhile for me to get back, but I did it, I'm here and I'm fine." I explained in my best lets-be-calm-and-reasonable-voice. 

A disbelieving smile crept over Trish's face, "Really?" she asked. 

In answer I raised my arms and smiled in a way that said I'm here aren't I? 

Suddenly Trish hugged me, "I thought you were dead." 

I couldn't think of anything to say to that, so I just hugged her back. 

"Uh-hum," the other girl cleared her throat meaningfully. 

"Oh Mora, this is Han Solo," Trish responded, turning to the girl. 

"Hello Han," Mora remarked. 

"Hi," I replied distractedly. "Trish we've got to get off this planet before it destroys us." 

"Han you've changed," Trish stepped back from me, "Last year you never would have given leaving a thought, now you're asking me to leave. What happened to you?" 

"Nothing, things here didn't turn out like they should have, that's all." 

"I admit the Rebel Government isn't perfect, but they're doing the best they can. We put them in control, it's our duty to stand by them now," Trish insisted. 

"You're right," I sighed, "We put 'em in charge and its our responsibility to make sure they don't mess up." 

"Han, I've got a bit of friendly advice for you, don't get mixed up with governments, especially the Rebel Government if you intend to have a long life." 

"I'm sure that's great advice Mora," I replied. "But it's too late for me to follow it. I'm partially responsible for what's happening so I'm going to go try to straighten this mess out." 

"I see why you and Trish are such great friends," Mora commented, "You're both crazy. Neither of you are responsible for the Rebel Government. You two just tried to help this planet change for the better and in a way it did. We're free of the Colonists aren't we? That was your only clear goal. That was all anyone in the Rebellion planned to do. Now that you've done that you don't know what to do. I'll tell you what to do. Follow Han's original plan, leave before it's too late and take me with you. Nothing anyone can do can help this place, but without the Colonists we're free to abandon it. I would have done that months ago except for Trish's crazy sense of duty. There's no reason for us to stay on a sinking ship." Mora glared at me, "Besides, you couldn't straighten up this mess anyway. You're only one person. What could you do that would make enough of a difference." 

"I could have a friendly chat with Joel Rawlis, he was one of the Rebellion's organizers, and he's the one who suggested I get involved with the piloting program." 

"Joel Rawlis is the head of security now. You'll never get within a mile of him," Mora remarked. 

"We'll see," was my answer. 

"Han Solo, you're a naive little boy," Trish yelled. "You haven't the faintest idea of how the Rebel government works. If you do that all that will happen is you'll be killed for stirring up trouble. I know, I've been ordered to shoot at the rioters before." 

"They won't be able to kill me, even if they do try, which I doubt. I've gotten even better at surviving tough situations over the last few months, and with your help, nothing at all can happen to me." 

"Don't count on my help," Trish replied angrily. "Because what you plan to do will hurt the Rebel Government and I won't help you. Any criticism hurts the Rebel Government but yours will more than most because you're a hero. Everyone knows about your attack on the Computer Complex. Everyone hated the implants, they were our chains, and you destroyed them. If it looked like you turned against the Rebel Government hundreds of people would turn against it as well. 

"Han if the Rebel Government decides you're a threat to them, they'll try to kill you. And I have sworn to uphold the orders of the Rebel Government, regardless of what they ask. I've never broken a promise." 

I brushed away a tear trickling down her cheek, "You don't look like a murderer to me," I commented. "Trish I've got to do something to help the planet, and telling the Rebel Government what it's doing wrong is the only thing I can think of to try." 

"If you really want to help the Rebel Government, give it the support it needs. Once the Rebel Government takes care of the CRMC then they can go back to fixing the planet, and in a few years everything will be alright." 

I looked at her sadly, "And you say I'm naive, Trish. Besides I don't care about the Rebel Government, I want to do what's best for Corellus. And what you're doing isn't going to help. After the CRMC is gone there will be someone else. The Rebel Government can either deal with the important things or compete with CRMC. We both know which option the Rebel Government choose, and how it's chosen to compete. 

"If you think just standing by the Rebel Government is going to actually help, why is it doing this to you Trish?" I turned her to the window. It wasn't a very good mirror, but even so you could still see the waxy pallor of her skin and the amount of weight she had lost. 

"Things will get better," Trish insisted, as she broke away from me. 

Mora and I watch her walk hurriedly away, "Trish!" I yelled. 

"She hates mirrors," Mora remarked. "Trish would like to pretend she can hide how much stress the Rebel Government puts her under when they ask us to help with things like riot control. I hate it too, but I acknowledge that I can't stand to fire on those people, and when I'm asked to, I fire, but I never hit anyone." 

============================================================== 

A month later, I sat in Joel Rawlis' office. 

"You really did survive that attack on the computer center," he greeted me. 

I glanced down at myself. "I don't look much like a ghost, so I must have." 

"Same old Han Solo," Joel laughed. "Why'd you want to talk to me?" 

I smiled a bit cautiously. I had taken Trish and Mora's warnings seriously, but I couldn't run away as Mora had suggested, or make myself even more responsible for the Rebel Government as Trish had done. I had to try to help in my own way. "Joel, you know I've been out of circulation for awhile, so right now I'm looking at things from the outside. I thought you might be interested in hearing how you guys look from that point of view." 

Joel leaned back in his chair, lacing his hands together. "How do we look, from the outside?" His tone was just a tad too cool. 

"Well, it looks like you don't see the real world anymore," I said quickly. 

"In what way aren't we seeing the real world?" Joel sounded almost as warm as deep space, but I'd said too much to back out now. 

"Over half the businesses in town are locked and barred. The rest of them are surrounded by rioters. Rioters who are risking their lives to bring what they think is a serious problem to the governments attention. The only attention they're getting is the wrong end of a blaster," I paused to draw a deep breath then plunged back in. "A lot of people won't pay your taxes, but more and more simply can't, but you treat them all the same way, the way you deal with rioters. From an outside point of view it seems like the way the Rebel Government deals with any problem that comes up is that you shoot it, or at least you shoot the person who told you about the problem. 

"I never thought it would happen," Joel commented, his icy voice was now laced with a threatening edge. "I'd been told you had turned against us, but I never would have believed it. You volunteered to die so that the Rebellion could succeed. By some miracle you lived through a suicidal mission, only to betray us! 

"You CRMC's are all the same, getting everyone riled up over some imaginary threat. The only way to accomplish the goals we once shared is to silence the CRMC. If word gets out that you have joined that organization it could do a great deal of damage to the Rebel Government, Solo. I can't allow that to happen, right now it is only a rumor that you survived the first battle. It would be much less damaging to the Rebel Government if that rumor were false, if you remained a dead hero, rather than a living traitor. 

"Back up a mite, buddy," I exclaimed. "We're on the same side, remember, I'm just not caught up in things!" 

"No, we're not," Rawlis replied with prefect calm, "You are seeking the downfall of the Rebel Government, but you made a mistake, coming to me with your lies, your last mistake." 

"You're crazy!" I exclaimed, shocked. "I just think the Rebel Government's gotten on the wrong track! I want to help it improve, I would never try to hurt it!" 

"Your last mistake," Rawlis repeated in his flat, terrifying voice. 

When I felt a blaster muzzle brush my neck I understood what Rawlis had meant by my "last mistake." 

At that touch I had reflexively started to move forward, away from the gun. No one had told me to freeze, so I continued to rise, as I did so I slammed my chair backwards, hard. There was a clatter as the blaster hit the floor. I spun and struck the man behind me in the throat, then dove for the blaster. I was certain Rawlis had already called for reinforcements, so I didn't bother telling him not to. 

As I darted out of the door Rawlis yelled, "You'll never get out of this building alive Solo!" 

We'll just have to see about that! 

At the first corner I met two men responding to their boss' signal. Both had left their blasters in their holsters, both were stunned or dead before they fully realized who I must be. 

I noticed a ventilator shaft at the bottom of the wall, the perfect place to lay low till things cooled down. Luckily it had a snap-on grating which I pulled back in place after me. I hoped no one would think to scan the building for life forms. 

It was a long, tense wait. Every now and then I would hear the thud of running footsteps in the hall. They bothered me, but the periods of silence were even more nerve wracking. 

Eventually the building resumed it's normal activity. Bits of conversation drifted to me. Some of it was every day business, but most centered on me. 

"... simply disappeared..." 

"The trail stops after Jos and Kelvar." They must be the two guards I met in the hall. I wished someone would say whether or not they had been killed. 

"... men were stationed at every door. How..." 

"Maybe he was a ghost after all," the speaker stopped right in front of my hiding place. "Maybe Solo came back from the other side to warn us away from the path we're taking." 

"Keep talking like that and it's you we'll be hunting for next," his companion remarked as they walked off. 

"... had to have jumped out a window." Humm, not a bad idea. 

Finally the hallway grew dark and silent. Cautiously I crept back to the grill. The hall was clear. I kicked the grill out and crawled into the hallway. I returned to Rawlis' office. By setting my blaster to the highest power and narrowest beam I neatly cut the door's lock off. The office's windows were shatter proof, but not blaster proof. 

There was one guard stationed at the side gate, but he wasn't expecting trouble, especially not from within the complex. 

I knew Rawlis would have people looking for me, but I doubted they'd leave a guard in my room. After all I was staying at the air base. Luckily no one had interfered with Trish and I's secret entrance, and I slipped into my room without being discovered. 

I spent the whole day sleeping under my bed, in case someone thought to check the room for me. Then the next night I snuck out and checked for ships leaving Corellus. I got lucky. There was one ship large enough to hide on leaving the solar system in three days. 

============================================================== 

Someone turned the handle on my door. I rolled under my bed, not an original hiding place, but it would have to do. 

The person stepped in closing the door behind them. "Han, I know you're here," a pause. "It's Mora, I won't give you away, I promise." Another pause, the closet doors were opened. "I'm sure you're planning on leaving Corellus, please take me with you." 

Surprised, I slid out from beneath the bed. Mora waited till I was standing then continued. "I can't stand it here any more," she whispered. 

"Is Trish coming with you?" I asked hopefully. 

The door opened again, and Trish entered. She looked even worse than she had a week ago. "No," she stated. 

Remembering what she had said about helping the Rebel Government to kill me, I reached for my blaster. "I won't give you away either," she continued. 

"Then why are you here?" I asked. 

Trish sighed, "To say good-bye and to wish you luck, both of you. Han if you weren't going to leave the planet, I would try to kill you, but all the Rebel Government wants is for you to disappear. They don't know that's what they want, but it is, so good luck, and don't ever come back." 

"Come with us," Mora pled. "You know you aren't happy here any more." 

"What I said before still goes," Trish replied. "Once the CRMC is destroyed, things will improve." 

"They certainly can't get any worse," I noted under my breath. 

A fire ignited in Trish's eyes, forcibly reminding me she wasn't a safe person to play games with. Then as suddenly as it had appeared the fire died out. "Get out of here, Han. Go search for you perfect planet," she commanded dully. "But you'll never find it. Every planet has problems. I refuse to give up the planet of my birth for a dream." And then she left, closing the door after her. 

I turned to Mora, "Meet me at docking bay 12 at three-o'-clock tomorrow. Don't worry about supplies." 

She nodded once, and left as well. Tiredly I sunk down on my bed. Why couldn't Trish be reasonable? 

============================================================== 

Mora was right on time, we boarded the ship with a load of cargo. Then we located an adequately deserted bulkhead and set up camp. 

I don't think anyone could have heard us but during the whole trip neither Mora nor I rose our voices over a whisper. 

"Where will you go?" Mora asked one day. 

"Courscant," I answered confidently, "You remember the pilots who visited our planet?" 

"Yeah," 

"Anakin, the one that taught my wing, was a good friend to Trish and I. He said that if I ever needed help I could reach him through Starfleet Headquarters." 

"You're crazy Han. You just got rid of one government, and now you want to get involved with another. Me, I want freedom, I'm going to find a nice little colony on the far end of nowhere. Someplace so remote that everyone still plays by their own rules and no one else's." Mora leaned back against the bulkhead, hands folded behind her head, "That's the place for me. It's not as safe as living under an established government, and I'll miss some of the conveniences of modern life, but I'll have my freedom. You see Han, to have anything you have to give up something else. When it's freedom you want, it's safety you give up. The more freedom you have the less safe you are. When the Colonists ruled Corellus we were safe. I can tell by your expression that you don't believe me, but think about it Han. They had a rule for every aspect of our lives and as long as you abided by those rules nothing would happen to you." 

I started laughing. I couldn't help it. 

"Alright, you might fall under undue suspicion and be punished for something you didn't do, or be injured if the Colonists put you to work in a dangerous situation," Mora conceded, "but it's safer than the alternatives. The alternatives are a government that lets you make own choices. When you're allowed to do that you also have to live with any bad choices you make. But even in that sort of government there are some ground rules laid out for you to follow. With the kind of freedom I want the only ground rules are those of nature. In that sort of government some people might not make a rule for themselves about not murdering others, and there won't be any government to tell them that's a no-no. But that's a risk I'm willing to take." 

I thought about what she had said for a moment then replied, "You missed the most freedom a person could have within the normal universe. Your type restricts you to the real out of the way planets." 

"You mean people who ignore rules that do exist," Mora commented. 

"Yep, they can live wherever they want, and do what ever they want." 

"Until the government whose rules they are so blatantly ignoring takes exception to them and locks them up in a little cage somewhere," Mora added. 

"Part of freedom is taking risks, that's what you said," I smiled. "But don't worry, I don't want that kind of freedom, I just want a government that hasn't gone off the deep end." 

"Han I hate to disappoint you, but every government is run by people, and if enough of those people have problems they can drive the whole system round the bend." Mora cautioned. 

"That's a risk I want to take. After all, it isn't a fore-gone conclusion that every government is going to loose it someday. Don't try to tell me otherwise because I'm not listening." 

============================================================== 

The trip lasted thirty-two days and Mora spent every minute we were together trying to convince me governments were bad news. Sometimes I distracted her by talking about Jotorus. 

I had brought my trinkets from the Spring Celebration, and a few things from my old room: A picture of my parents and the other member of their wing, (In the background you could see their ships.) a model of a battle cruiser, a holographic star map, and a metal the Rebel Government had given me for my part in the battle against the Colonists. It had been awarded posthumously, which no one bothered to change. I had found it in a storage room with the rest of my stuff when I returned from Jotorus. 

"Why do you carry around all these old memories?" Mora asked when she saw the stuff. 

"I like it, it makes me feel at home to have my stuff around." I answered. 

"We do come from the same planet right?" Mora asked rhetorically. "Well if you really want to feel at home just live on a battle field, it would have the same atmosphere." 

"Very funny," I commented. "Do you have any other problems with what I choose to take with me?" 

"Well now that you mention it I think your choice of items is crazy too. To me it looks like your holding on to a lot of painful memories. The cat skin, and the pictures of Jotorus are reminders of a place that you're never going to see again. The star map might be useful, but a model starship? And keeping that medal around is creepy. I mean it was awarded posthumously by a government that wishes the posthumously part wasn't a mistake." Mora lectured. 

I glared at her, "I happen to like them, and the memories that go with them!" 

Mora rolled her eyes and walked off. I waited a few minutes then headed out of camp in the opposite direction. I enjoyed exploring the ship, watching the crew. Usually I headed for the most populated areas of the ship. It was fun to take chances, but today was different. I didn't want excitement, I just wanted to think. Eventually I ended up in the ship's observatory. I'm not sure how long I spent staring at the stars streaking by. 

"Most people find hyperspace disconcerting," A voice behind me remarked. 

I spun around. A girl stood in the doorway, one hand resting against the doorjamb. I felt panic rising inside me, it was one thing to take risks, but a whole other thing to get caught! 

My blaster appeared in my hand without me realizing quite how it had gotten there. 

"You're a little jumpy," the girl commented. She stepped into the room letting the door slide shut behind her. "Alright now I'm your prisoner, what are you going to do with me?" 

I didn't know, and I was sure I didn't want to tell her that so I asked, "Who are you?" 

"Ensign Alisa Jenkins, serial number 0-269833," She replied promptly, a broad smile lighting up her face, "I know the rules, I don't have to tell you anything else." 

I groaned, not only did I have to get discovered, I got discovered by a person with a rotten sense of humor. 

"Now you have to tell me of your evil plot to take over the universe," She continued. 

"You watch too many spy movies," I commented irritably. 

"Close, but no cigar," the girl replied, "Actually I read spy novels. Now how about that plot?" 

"Join the real world," I growled. 

"We're not in the real world," Alisa remarked, "In the real world people don't hold you at gun point for surprising them, so I decided to play this by the rules in my spy novels." 

"If I put up the blaster, will you put up the theatrics?" I asked. 

"No problemo!" Alisa replied. "Thanks, for some reason I get nervous when someone points a blaster at me." 

"I'm sorry about that but you surprised me," I said defensively. 

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Alisa asked. 

I relaxed. In the dim light she hadn't realized I wasn't a crew member. "I just felt like wearing something different," for good measure I added my most charming smile. 

"Why are you carrying a blaster? You've got to know the rules. Only on duty security men can carry blasters on the ship." She paused to glance at me, "I'm not sure what sector you're stationed in, but you're obviously not on duty." 

Apparently the effect of my smile was ruined by the dim light. Too bad. I'd just have to come up with a better story, "I'm in engineering," I explained, "but I have a friend in Security. The other day he was playing around with his blaster and broke it. He was really embarrassed about it so I offered to fix it for him without letting anyone else know it was broken. He was going to meet me here and pick it up." 

"Yeah right," she stated, "The holes in that story are big enough to fly this ship through. To name just a few: If you were expecting someone why did my showing up startle you so badly? If the blaster isn't yours why are you wearing the holster? And finally you could pass for a gunman with that speed draw... Engineer." 

"Well what do you think I am?" I challenged, if I couldn't think of a story she would believe maybe she would think of it. 

"Whatever I say I'm sure you'll agree with me," Alisa commented, "I'm not going to make it that easy for you." 

Well if I couldn't smooth talk my way out of this maybe I could shock her. "Alright you want the truth," I forced my voice to become harsh and angry," I drew the blaster again. "I'm sick of this ship! In fact I'm sick of this galaxy!" While I was talking I set the blaster to widest dispersal, minimum power, that should produce a good light show without doing any damage, and with a bit of luck she would think I had a disintegrator, not a regular blaster. 

"I was in the process of killing myself when you walked in!" Dramatically I put the blaster to the side of my head. Just before triggering it I switched my aim a little, the bolt splayed harmlessly across the clearsteel window. Meanwhile I dropped to the floor and crawled to a dark corner. 

That little display had the planned effect on my eyes at least, I thought, trying to see after the incredible brilliance of the blaster bolt. I hoped she had been momentarily blinded as well. Slowly my eyes readjusted to the dimly lit observatory. Alisa Jenkins was standing in the middle of the room blinking furiously. Then she turned slowly making sure I had really disintegrated myself. I trusted the flash of light, the observatory's normal darkness, and my impression of a statue would combine to hide me. 

Alisa gasped, them pressed one knuckle to her mouth. Starlight glistened of the tears on her cheeks. 

Some days nothing goes right, I thought to myself. All I had wanted to do was escape, not upset her. I couldn't give up my game now though. For an hour she sat there looking pitiful, and I sat in my corner forcing myself to be sensible, and stay hidden. As soon as she left I returned to my camp. 

============================================================== 

I didn't tell Mora about meeting Alisa, I had already taken care of the problem hadn't I? Why worry her? 

"What are we having for dinner?" I asked. 

"I had another pack of emergency rations. If you want one they're right where they always are, and you have no sense of taste. Han, couldn't you have picked up some real food when you got the supplies?" She complained. 

"Emergency rations are perfect for what we're doing," I explained. "They're easy to steal, easy to carry, and they provide a perfectly balanced meal." 

"You miss one thing," Mora pointed out, "They taste awful." 

"Ya gotta take the good with the bad," I replied, grabbing a pack. 

"Until the bad outweighs the good," Mora replied. "I know it's risky, but tomorrow I'm going to order a wonderful, tasty breakfast from the ships food processors." 

After all the risks I'd been taking, how could I object? 

For several days I stayed in camp. Then bored of listening to Mora's lectures and having nothing else to do I resumed exploring the ship. But now I stuck to the more deserted areas of the ship. 

============================================================== 

A phaser bolt exploded around me. When I woke up I was bound hand and foot. Alisa was standing before me looking very angry. "It's about time you woke up," she commented. 

"It wasn't very nice of you to stun me," I replied angrily. 

"And that trick of yours was? That's why I tied you up, you won't get out of this so easily. 

"I really believed you had committed suicide. I waited a few days but no one announced a crewman's disappearance. That's when I realized you had played a nasty trick on me. I decided to find out who you were then pay you back. I asked the computer to give me the files of all the crewmembers fitting your general description: Male, in his early teens, brown hair, between five and five and a half feet tall. Only none of the people who fit that description were you. I ought to have told the Captain we had a stow-away on board, but basically I'm a nice person, so I decided to give you a chance to explain yourself. Now start talking and it had better be good." 

"Where should I start?" I asked. 

"A name would be nice." 

I thought about lying but there didn't seem to be much to gain from it. "Name's Han Solo, I don't have a rank or serial number to give you." 

"Ha-ha, very funny. Now where are you from?" 

"Corellus, and you thought it was funny when you said it," I answered. 

"Why did you stow-away on this ship." 

Now was the time to sell my story to her, "I pointed out a few of the Rebel Government's less flattering aspects to its security chief and he tried to have me killed. I had to get off the planet fast, and I didn't want my name on a passenger list. Your ship was going where I want to go, far from Corellus. so I gathered some supplies and hopped aboard." 

"I'm not sure whether to believe you or not. Your story makes sense, but the last time we met you proved yourself to be less than honest and very resourceful." 

"How can I convince you?" Automatically I tried to move my hands in a gesture of helpless innocence. I discovered Alisa Jenkins was great at tieing knots. In the end I settled for a sincere expression. 

"You probably can't," Alisa remarked, "Where are you going?" 

"Courscant," I answered promptly. 

"Why?" 

"Anakin told me I could contact him there." 

"Who is this Anakin?" 

"Commander Anakin Skywalker," I answered. That ought to make an impression on her. 

Alisa looked at me worriedly, "When was the last time you saw Commander Skywalker?" 

"About two years ago, why do you ask?" 

"He might not be the same person you knew," Alisa warned. 

"How so, what are you talking about?" I demanded. 

"Rumors say he's a Dark Jedi, and since he started working for Senator Palpatine he's gone power crazy," Alisa paused. "At starfleet, they say that the changes in him drove his wife away." 

"Your wrong, Anakin isn't even married," I stated angrily, "Anakin is my friend!" 

"If the rumors are true you'll get yourself in more hot water than I ever could," Alisa remarked bending down to untie me. "How old are you?" 

"Old enough to take care of myself," I answered. 

"Since when are..." She looked carefully at me, "... Thirteen-year-olds old enough to take care of themselves." 

I knew I looked younger than I was, but why did people always have to be reminding me of the fact? "I'm fifteen," I corrected her. 

"And I'm a hundred," Alisa replied. 

I started to walk off. "Oh don't leave in a huff," Alisa said then added, "If you say you're fifteen I'll believe you." 

Still anrgy I turned back to her, "Even if I was thirteen I could take care of myself." 

"What ever you say," She said, her patronizing tone irritating me. 

"I'm a helmsman on the Starfire." She offered, trying to make up. 

"Why do you call your ship by a name?" I asked. 

"Ships have a certain personality," Alisa explained. "And if you want a ship to perform at it's best, you've got to acknowledge that personality. A name is a good way to do that." 

"Okay, I think I get it. My High Altitude fighter was a Z-95 class, but everyone called it a Headhunter because that name was really different from the name of any other type of High Altitude fighter," I rephrased. 

"No not at all. There are other ships of the GH-1501 class, but only this one is called the Starfire. It has a number identification too, but the name shows we understand that this ship is different from any other GH-1501 freighter," Alisa clarified. 

"Starfire is this ship's name, like Han Solo is mine, and Alisa Jenkins is yours." 

"Yeah now you're getting it." 

"Why give a ship a name, it's just a machine?" I questioned. 

"Apparently you've never depended on a ship. We trust the Starfire with our lives, and she protects us. Ship are like living beings they try harder for people who give their all for the ship." Alisa's voice was so intense that I decided now wasn't the time to tell her if you took good care of you machinery it would work better. Nor did I tell her the ship didn't try harder, it was just in good condition. Besides, who knows, she might be right. I hadn't thought animals could become friends with people till I met Dusty, so maybe I'd reserve my judgement about naming ships till I'd had one with a name. 

============================================================== 

After that I had several more conversations with Alisa. She had me help with the ship's maintenance to pay for my ride. One day she told me we had a Mynock (whatever that was) on the hull, and that we were going to take care of it. 

Several days ago she had the ship's computer synthesize a technician's uniform for me. That way I could move around the ship without risking being discovered a second time. It worked fairly well. This time we walked right up to an Ensign and asked for two space suits. He hardly even glanced at me. Of course he might not have noticed me even if I were dressed in the Captain's uniform. He was too busy looking at Alisa, which was completely understandable. She was very attractive, with shoulder length copper colored hair, brilliant green eyes, and golden freckles scattered across her delicate face. 

The space suits were uncomfortable and bulky, but Alisa insisted we'd need them when we left the ship. I wasn't that sure I wanted to leave the ship, but Alisa threatened to tell the Captain about me if I didn't. 

The airlock opened and we entered. Nervously I tapped my foot against the floor and tried to ignore the count down to the time when the outer doors would open. I was sweating heavily and removed my helmet to wipe my face off. As soon as the seal broke I nearly blacked out. Whatever had happened felt much worse than the implants. Dimly I could hear Alisa ordering the computer to reverse depressurization. Then she leaned over me and resealed the helmet. 

"Repressurization complete," the computer announced. 

"Ensign Jenkins, what's going on in there?" someone demanded over the intercom. 

"Mr. Solo's suit didn't seal properly," she answered. 

"I'll call sickbay," the person remarked. 

I shook my head, trying to clear it, "If he does that I'll get caught!" I whispered desperately. 

"Hang on a second," Alisa ordered. "He doesn't seem to be hurt." 

"Are you sure of that?" the intercom asked. 

"Yes," I stated. 

"Let me check," Then she turned to me. "Take off your helmet." 

"Are you crazy!" I exclaimed. "That's how I got in this mess in the first place!" 

"It's safe now," she demonstrated that by removing her own helmet. Reluctantly I pulled mine off too. 

"Well I guess you got lucky, just a few of the blood vessels in your cheeks burst, and you've got a little bit of a bloody nose. You'll have a bad bruise across your face, but when you realize that you could have burst your eardrums, or damaged you eyes with that stunt you were really very lucky. What I can't understand is why you did a dumb thing like removing your helmet in the first place!" 

"I wouldn't have if you had told me what would happen when I did!" I hissed back. 

"You have done this before, haven't you?" Alisa asked. 

"No, the only other time I even left Corellus' atmosphere was when Anakin taught me to fly an X-wing," I answered more calmly. 

"Great!" Alisa commented, "This is just great. I must be some kind of idiot, not asking you if you'd ever done anything like this before! Well what am I going to do with you, if you back out Technician Garin will send you to sickbay and someone will figure out that you're a stow-away. And if I take you with me you might do something else wrong and get seriously hurt, in addition to getting caught. What in the twin worlds am I supposed to do with you?" 

"What if I promise not to do anything out there?" I asked. "I could just stand real still and wait for you to finish." 

"You'll have to float real still, because that's what you do in zero-gravity." Alisa remarked. She reactivated the intercom, 

"Garin, he's fine. So we're going to continue with the mission. Give us a minute to get our suits back on then start the airlock again." 

"The computer didn't catch the bad seal on Solo's suit last time I'd like to check it with another computer before you try it again." 

We did and of course it showed everything was working properly with the suit. So we started out again. This time nothing went wrong. When the outer doors slid open Alisa confidently kicked off the wall and floated out of the ship. I sighed and followed her. 

For the first ten minutes I refused to look at deep space. The space suit that had seemed so bulky on the ship was now a frail bubble, and the only thing between me and deep space. 

I wasn't sure what Alisa was doing or what a Mynock was. Finally my curiosity over came my terror of deep space. Carefully I turned to look along the ship to my right. 

"I'm up here Han," Alisa's voice said over the com link. "About three meters above you." 

I pushed back a little and scanned the hull above me. as I did so I took my first look at the stars since I'd left the ship. Neither the X-wing or the Starfire's observatory had prepared me for this. They had only let me catch a glimpse of a small square of stars. Now they were all around me, for the first time I realized that space really did go on forever. I could see the stars stretching out around me into eternity. 

I looked back at the ship. Compared to a space suit it had appeared as safe as a planet. A planet safe? Who was I kidding? Compared to space, even a planet was just a speck of dust. 

All my life Corellus had seemed like the most important thing in the Universe when it was really so completely insignificant! I started laughing it was so impossibly ridiculous. Who cared about Corellus? There were so many other planets to choose from. And if I didn't like any of them I could always get a ship, a small world of my own. 

"Han! what's wrong with you. If you get hysterical I don't know what I'll do to you! The least of which will be never letting you forget it!" Alisa yelled. 

With difficulty I forced myself to stop laughing, "Why in the universe would I be scared out here?" 

"Oh, I don't know, maybe whatever had you so shook up before," Alisa remarked sarcastically. 

"I don't know what was wrong with me before," I laughed. "This is great!" 

"Then get up here and give me a hand with the Mynock." 

Awkwardly I clamored over the hull to where Alisa was surveying the Mynock. It looked like a wet leather sack. "What do we do with it?" I asked. 

"We pry it off the ship with small explosive charges, I've already set most of them." She handed me a small flat dish. "Shove this under the edge of the Mynock, but be carefully not to snag your suit on anything." 

Gingerly I set the charge beside the Mynock and did as she said. A minute or two later we had finished. 

"Back away and get a firm hold on the ship," Alisa instructed. She checked that I had followed directions then detonated the charges. 

The ship shuttered as the Mynock was blown off. 

Alisa began to make her way back to the airlock. I stayed where I was, watching the stars. 

Alisa turned to look back at me. "Wonderful," She exclaimed. "Now that you're not petrified by deep space, you're mesmerized by it!" She climbed back to me, "Time to go in." 

When I didn't respond she knocked on my helmet, "Hello, anybody home," She called 

I sighed, then followed her to the airlock. 

"When do you think we can go out again?" I asked. 

"I don't believe you," Alisa remarked. "You take one look at the stars and suddenly you're in love with deep space." 

"Looking at deep space made me realize that a planet isn't much more that a glorified space suit, and I wasn't scared on a planet so why should I be scared when I'm using a space suit? Neither of them is anything at all compared with space." 

"Han, I hate to tell you this," Alisa commented. "But you're strange. That is precisely why most people are terrified of deep space." 

"Well, I guess most people are just crazy." I replied. 

Alisa laughed, "Only you would say that." 

"Well when are we going out again?" I repeated. 

"We won't, we're only two days from Courscant." 

============================================================== 

When I returned to camp that night Mora glanced up at me then returned her attention to the book she was reading. A few seconds later she looked up again, "What happen to you?" she asked. 

"Nothing, I just found a new place to explore, it's really very interesting." 

"Did you find it before or after walking into the door?" 

"Huh?" I didn't have the faintest idea of what she was talking about. 

"No you didn't run into any thing. That would have just bruised one part of your face, I can't imagine how you did that." 

"Oh that," I exclaimed. How could I explain away the bruise without telling her about getting caught. I hadn't even checked how much damage the airlock had done, but now that I was thinking about it, I could feel the dull ache of a bruise spreading across my cheeks and nose. 

"It's nothing really. I can hardly even feel it now," I replied, unable to think of an explanation for it. 

"Why is it always so much trouble to get a streight answer out of you?" Mora demanded. "Don't answer that, and don't make up any stories about the bruise. I'm too tired to force the truth out of you." 

============================================================== 

I didn't see Alisa again till we were at Courscant. 

"Han," she yelled as Mora and I stepped out of the cargo bay, "I was afraid I'd missed you. After you catch up with the Commander what will you do?" 

"Probably try to get accepted to Starfleet Academy," I answered. 

"I'll call you up some day," Alisa promised. 

"See ya then," I replied. 

As we walked off Mora asked, "Who was that?" 

"Alisa Jenkins," I answered hoping she would drop the subject. 

"And just who is Alisa Jenkins?" No luck there. 

"Alisa is my friend," I replied, there was still a slim, a very slim chance I could avoid telling Mora I'd been caught by a crew member. 

"Uh-huh, and where did you meet this friend?" 

Oh well, I tried. "On the ship." 

"You told someone that we stowed-away on that ship!?" Mora screamed. 

"You're wrong on two counts Mora," I state indignantly. 

"And which two would those be?" 

"First, I didn't tell her I was a stow-away, she figured it out on her own. Second, she never knew about you." 

"Well, thanks for protecting me, I guess," Mora paused, realizing something, something I would prefer she hadn't realized. "You got careless, didn't you? You got careless and she saw you." 

"I was watching the stars in the observatory." 

"You were taking stupid risks," Mora said contemptuously. 

"What's life without risks?" I asked flippantly. 

"Foolish risks, the type you seem to enjoy taking, are the kind that can get you killed." 

"For stowing-away on a ship," I laughed. 

"Or in trouble." 

"But it didn't," I objected. 

"Not this time," Mora insisted angrily. "But what about the next time. You took a pointless risk going to the government. You had to know how Rawlis would react, and if you really didn't Trish and I were trying to tell you. But you went ahead and did it anyway. And what did it get you, exiled from your home planet, that's what. Why did you do it, because of some ridiculous sense of responsibility for the Rebel Government!" 

"So, I'm exiled from Corellus, who cares there's plenty of other planets out there." I remarked. 

Mora put her hand on my forehead, I ducked away from her yelling, "Hey what are you doing!" 

"Checking for a fever. I admit that Corellus isn't much, but it's still your home planet. From what Trish said about you, you seemed quite fond of it." 

"I hadn't realized there was any place else yet," I explained. 

"And now you have?" 

"Yep." 

"No matter how many other planets there are in the galaxy, Corellus is the only one you grew up on," Mora commented. 

"And that makes it important?" 

"I plan to go back there some day," Mora informed me. 

"I don't." 

"You can't, there's a difference," Mora insisted. 

"But Mora, I don't want to go back to Corellus," I pointed out. 

"You're scared to go back," Mora pressed, "and with good reason, the Rebel Government has given you a death sentence." 

"No, I don't feel like going back, I just don't want to see what the Rebel Government is going to do to my planet, I'm not scared to go back." 

"Then you're crazy," Mora remarked, "This trip has changed you Han. I can't decide whether or not it's for the worse. 

In the morning I'll set off for my rough and tumble frontier world, so this is goodbye." 

She turned down a new hallway, then stopped, "Han, if Trish ever comes to her senses and leaves Corellus, wish her good luck for me." 

"If she doesn't, do the same for me when you visit Corellus," I replied. She nodded and walked off. 

============================================================== 

Luckily the space port on Courscant was just about next door to Starfleet Headquarters. Getting there was no problem at all but finding someone who could help me was something else entirely. 

I walked in the front door then stopped and looked around. There was a young man sitting at a desk. I decided to talk to him. 

"Hi, I was told I could get in touch with Anakin Skywalker through here," I stated. 

"You need to talk to the communications department," he replied. "That's located on the third floor, fourth branching hallway to your left, on the right side of the main hall." 

"Where's the elevator?" I asked. 

He pointed to a pair of doors on one side of the room. 

I followed his directions till I entered a room very similar to the one I had left, except this time the receptionist was female. 

"I'd like to put a call through to Anakin Skywalker," I requested. 

The woman smiled, "That would be in Mr. Taldin's Sub-department. Follow that hallway," she pointed it out, "till you reach a T-branch, then go left. At the second four-way corner take the branch on the right. Mr. Taldin's office is the fifth one you'll come to." 

"Thanks." 

============================================================== 

"Mr. Taldin?" I asked. 

"Yes what can I do for you?" he replied. 

"I'd like to contact Anakin Skywalker, he told me I could reach him from here," I answered. 

"Do you know which ship or planet he is currently stationed on." 

"No." I sighed. 

"Then you'll have to go to personnel and find out." 

"I'm sure you've got a long list of directions that will get me there, and once I do get there they'll send me somewhere else, right?" I commented tiredly. 

"If you wish to call someone with a subspace radio, you need to know where to send the call," Mr. Taldin explained. 

"Alright, gimme those directions." 

============================================================== 

This time the receptionist wasn't anything remotely human. Not only did it give me more directions, it told me the person I wanted to speak to wasn't even in today. 

"When will he be back?" I asked. 

"Next week," was the answer I received. 

"Isn't there anyone else I could ask?" 

"No." 

"You mean there's only one person in this whole organization who knows where Anakin Skywalker is?" I demanded. 

"Of course not, there must be at least a hundred people in this building alone who know where he is, but only Lt. Karish is authorized to give that information to a civilian, and he is out till next week." 

"Fine, I'll stay here until Lt. Karish shows up." I growled sitting down. 

"What are you doing!?" The receptionist exclaimed. 

"I'm waiting for Lt. Karish, this is a waiting room isn't it?" I remarked. 

"It is not a hotel!" 

"You're right, it's not. Too bad though, a hotel would be more comfortable, but I can live without one." 

The receptionist didn't answer. I was half way expecting that. Sooner of later s/he had to try to out wait me. So I started setting up my camp. The more disruptive I was the sooner we could move on to the next act. 

This being had more patience than I expected. S/he didn't call security till his/hers lunch break. I guess s/he didn't want to leave me alone with his/hers stuff, even for a minute. 

When the guards showed up I calmly handcuffed myself to the front desk. It had probably been assembled in the room since there was no way anyone could get it through the door. This tactic had the desired effect, the security guards didn't know what to do about me. The cuffs were energy cuffs that couldn't be cut through and were unlocked with a code. I'd got them to help get an interview with Joel Rawlis. 

Originally the guards had probably planned to escort me out of the building, or if I proved to be stubborn, stun me and then throw me out. Now those plans wouldn't work very well. 

"The easiest way to get rid of me would be to authorize one of those hundred people to tell me what I want to know." I commented pleasantly. 

Confused the two guards turned to the receptionist. "The ones that know where Anakin Skywalker is but can't tell me," I explained. 

"What's going on here?" asked a man who had just entered the room from one of the hallways beyond it. 

"Admiral Dayvon, we're very sorry to have disturbed you!" the receptionist apologized. 

"You didn't," the Admiral replied, "I was just stepping out for lunch, and what do I find in the waiting room? Two security guards, a camp ground, and a kid handcuffed to the front desk. Now would someone mind explaining this state of affairs to me?" 

I smiled happily. Finally someone with enough authority to do something besides direct me to the next office. "Sir," I began, "All I want to do is talk to Commander Skywalker. He told me that I could reach him from here. But so far all I've been able to do is see miles of your building while I'm being shipped from one department to the next. And then when I get here this being tells me the only person authorized to tell me where Anakin is, isn't going to be available till next week. Then he tells me that there are lots of people who know where Anakin is, but none of them can part with the information." 

"And why can't you wait till next week to talk with the Commander?" Admiral Dayvon asked. 

A number of possible answers ran through my head: I didn't have the money to rent a room for a week. I didn't want to go through all this hassle again. If I wait the next person I needed to talk to would probably be out too. I didn't think starfleet would accept me without Anakin's sponsorship. "I can't stay here forever," I finally answered. 

"Then you don't want to know where Anakin is." 

"Why not?" I asked. 

"Because before Lt. Karish could tell you that you would have to prove you have a valid reason for wanting the information." 

I slumped back against the desk. This was even harder than getting an interview with Joel Rawlis. 

"There is an easier way to get a call through to him," Dayvon continued, "You could find someone authorized to tell Mr. Taldin where Commander Skywalker is." 

"And how many years would that take?" I asked in disgust. 

"I could probably do it, as soon as you get free of those handcuffs and get your stuff packed up again," the Admiral offered. 

"You could!" I exclaimed. "Thanks, it will only take me a minute, I have the cuffs combination memorized." I poked a few buttons and the handcuffs sprung open. I quickly gathered my stuff together. Luck was certainly with me today. 

"Now, do you mind telling me who you are?" the Admiral asked. 

"Han Solo pleased to meet you can we go now?" I replied all in one breath. 

"It's no wonder you didn't have the patience to do things the normal way," Admiral Dayvon commented leading me back to Mr. Taldin's office. 

With the Admiral's help it took no time at all to call Anakin up. 

"Hi Anakin," I greeted him tentatively. 

"Han, how did your rebellion go?" He asked. 

"We won, then the people who were put in charge of our new government went crazy." I explained briefly. 

Anakin looked worried, "Are you on Corellus?" He asked. 

"No, I'm on Courscant and I don't plan on going back to Corellus, ever," I answered. 

"Do you have any plans?" Anakin continued. 

"Not really," I commented, everything was going just like I wanted it to. 

"Well Starfleet can always use good pilots, would you and Trish consider it?" 

"I'd love too," I replied, "But Trish wouldn't leave Corellus." 

"I'm shocked," Anakin sounded like it, "I didn't think anything could split you two up." 

"When I left she said that she would help the Rebel Government to kill me if I ever came back," I replied. 

"I won't ask why she feels that way. Is that Admiral Dayvon standing behind you?" 

"Yes," 

"May I speak with him?" Anakin asked, "I need to make sure he understands that you could be a real asset to the fleet." 

"Okay, sure," I slid out of the way and Dayvon took my place. 

"Commander, do you honestly believe this kid would have a chance in Starfleet? It's almost vital that Starfleet applicants come from fleet families or at least a well known family," Dayvon objected. 

"Han Solo is good enough to make it on merit alone, but I'm sure everyone will have an easier time accepting him if it's known that I'm his sponsor." Anakin relied. 

"Yes that will certainly improve his chances. Many good people end up on cargo freighters simply because they lacked a sponsor," Dayvon commented. 

I could tell Anakin found Dayvon's remark amusing, "Admiral, if you'd seen Han fly you wouldn't say that. I'd be glad to have him as my wingman. I'm sponsoring him so that he might be able to avoid some of the prejudice that outsiders get stuck with." 

"You're serious about this kid, aren't you?" Dayvon remarked. 

"Yes I am, Senator Palpatine is reorganizing the Republic. It's out grow the old from of government. Palpatine needs skilled indivuals who will be loyal to him, not people with just a name. I know Han is loyal to me, I wouldn't think twice about trusting him with my life. The Senator needs people he can trust, ones who can trust without knowing everything. I trusted Han without knowing everything about the Rebellion, I'm sure he'd do the same for me." I was aware that Anakin had been speaking for my benefit for the last few seconds. "Goodbye Admiral, Goodbye Han I'll see you out here in a few years." 

As Dayvon shut off his terminal I heard him mutter, "Palpatine doesn't want people to trust him, he wants them to obey him. Can't anyone see that?" 

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	6. Han

**Finding a Path - Han (cont 2)**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

I stood stiffly before the Academy's board of directors. Dayvon had instructed me on procedures and had helped me fill out the various forms that one needed to fill out before being accepted as a member of Starfleet. 

"The next applicant is Han Solo," The man who had collected our forms announced, "his sponsor is Commander Anakin Skywalker." That caused a slight stir. 

"Please enter the battle simulator," one member of the board requested. On the outside the simulator looked like a rather large box, but the inside was the cockpit of an X-wing. 

"Ready?" a voice asked. 

"Whenever you are." Video games were not a problem. Instantly the equipment came to life and the canopy showed a landing field. As I lifted off I discovered just how detailed this video game was. Gravity generators had been installed to simulate the feeling of a real flight. This little test was the easiest I'd have Dayvon had warned me. The other were written tests. (Dayvon had been surprised to learn I could read, write, and do arithmetic at an average level for my age group. Even the Colonists had acknowledged that every one needed some basic skills to be of the any use in a highly advanced society.) But I realized that my scores in areas such as history wouldn't be worth mentioning. 

Two weeks later I was accepted. I was delighted till I saw my schedule. It turned out that my first year at the Academy was to be devoted to catching me up in the subjects which I had done poorly in. In other words History, Standard, Republic government, and Starfleet's moral policies were to take up most of my time. While Starfleet let the other cadets catch up to me in the areas of tactics, actually flying, and hand weapons. 

In some classes I was so far behind that I had to be taught individually, but it wasn't my fault! Why in the galaxy would someone from outside the Republic have studied subjects like Republic history, (if anyone had bothered to test me they would have found that I was only a little better at Corellian History,) or Republic government. But I did manage to survive the year. 

The second year was much more interesting, in all my classes, except History with its thousands of dates, I was able to join my classmates. And I was able to skip directly to advanced tactics. 

I was shocked to learn that of the twenty cadets in my class on flying fighter ships, I was the only one who had flown in anything more dangerous than a simulator. Later, when we started having simulator battles against one another I was finally convinced that they were telling the truth about their flight experience. Shortly after that I started trying to trick them into tearing their own ships apart rather than trying to shoot them. The ease I had in winning my game was one of the reasons we weren't allowed near a real ship. 

My game had another effect. It made me very unpopular with my classmates. I had explained that it was much more entertaining to do it my way than to simply shoot their ships down, but they insisted I was just showing off. In the end the instructor, Lt. Commander Mordash, decided that in the interest of reducing the level of hostility in the class, she would be my partner. I beat her seven times out of ten, but I never even tried my game on her. 

The first time Lt. Mordash paired up against me most of the class took some time off to watch us. I'm almost certain they were looking forward to seeing me lose, and hopefully lose badly. If so they were disappointed. While Mordash was still going easy on me, because I was a cadet, I blew her ship up. She must have written that first loss up as beginners luck, because on the second game I beat her in the same way. After that the Lieutenant began trying in earnest. She won the third game. 

At the quarter I was moved into a more advanced class, one that was using real ships. In this class I didn't dare try to make the other cadets tear their ship apart, not because they were especially good, but because they might get killed when I succeeded. That was another class in which I didn't make many friends. But to my surprise I did make one friend, Cadet Allen Dare. Allen wasn't any better than the rest of the class, but he was a lot more easy going. Allen said, and believed that there wasn't any reason I shouldn't try my hardest, and that it wasn't my fault I was a natural at flying. He, like all the other cadets, had no idea I'd had prior experience in this field. 

When Allen learned of my trouble in History he offered to help, and I accepted. In that subject I needed all the help I could get. 

============================================================== 

I knocked lightly on Allen's door. Now that our first lesson had come I was more nervous than when Allen suggested helping me with history. 

A second later Allen opened the door, light from his desk lamp gleamed off his white hair. Allen's eyes made his hair even more unusual, for they were a dark brown. 

"Come in, Han," he remarked. "Tonight I thought it would be a good idea for me to find out how much of the Republic's history you already know. 

"You're the teacher," I replied with a tense smile. 

We spent the night playing a questions and answers game that made me feel very stupid. We started with, "when did something happened," but by the end of the lesson he was asking questions like: "What are the Jedi Knights' goals?" 

And I was answering with remarks like: "What's a Jedi Knight?" 

"It is really strange that you don't know about the Jedies. I thought everyone knew that even before they entered school. Stories about them are very popular," Allen commented. 

"Well I don't," I growled. 

"Why don't you have any of the background a five year old normally has?" Allen asked. 

"Because I didn't grow up in your stupid Republic! Who care about Republic history except the Republic, and I've only been a citizen of the Republic for a year and a half! That's why!" I snapped. 

"I didn't know that," Allen commented. 

His quiet reply dissolved my anger, "Well, I didn't really tell anyone," I mumbled. 

"That's why you have so much trouble in history. The teachers probably teach it to you like they would to anyone else, but you need someone to tell you the stories and the legends that everyone else knew to begin with," Allen stated. 

============================================================== 

So our lessons turned into storytelling sessions and trips to the local library. I was surprised by how much easier it was to remember the dates of things had that happened when I knew what had happened. 

After a few lessons I felt like I owed Allen something. Finally I asked him if he would like me to help him with his flying. 

Allen would never be an exceptional pilot but he did improve. My History scores raised but never beyond just passing, so I figured we were even. 

============================================================== 

"Do you ever get homesick?" Allen asked one day. 

The question was so out of the blue I wasn't sure how to answer it. I thought about Corellus for a while before answering, "Not really, I mean I sort of miss what my home planet should have been like, but the way it is... Well it has no use for me nor I for it." 

"I'm from Tellsare," Allen continued almost like he hadn't heard me. "It's the most beautiful planet in the galaxy. On my part of the planet there are huge deciduous forests. We build our cities around them. It's not at all odd to see a building with a tree growing up through the roof. My house used a tree for one corner post, my room was on that corner, I used the tree as my private exit." He smiled sadly, "I miss it a lot. How can you not miss being in familiar surroundings?" 

"I've always lived on an air base," I replied. "This one's a little more modern but it has the same feel. I also took some of the stuff from my old room with me, so I guess I just brought my familiar surroundings with me. 

"Here I've got a chance to get into space as well. On my home planet I didn't have that." 

"Is outer space so important?" Allen asked. 

I looked over at him, confused, "of course it is, outer space is the biggest thing in existence." 

"And that makes it more important than a single planet? It's so empty and unfriendly." 

"It's not unfriendly, it just exists." 

"It's cold, silent, and dead," Allen insisted. 

"It never feels that way to me," I argued. "It feels peaceful... Like its sleeping, like it knows we will never be able to hurt it in the slightest. Planets aren't safe, or stable. They're always changing, growing, and dying. But space is always the same." 

"That's because planets are alive, space is dead." 

I shrugged, it was obvious this wasn't going anywhere, "Come on," I said. "We're going to be late for the Survival Class." Survival was anything but a regular class. You never knew who was going to be in it with you, and you were required to participate in it about once a month. Each session could last anywhere from a few hours to a week. We might be given all the supplies we needed, or we might have to find them. The main obstacle might be your environment or it might be your classmates. You were carefully monitored at all times, but no one would interfere unless you requested it, or were unconscious. If you did ask to be picked up early you needed a good reason. Without one you couldn't pass survival, and you didn't graduate till you passed this class. 

When we were playing games in which you tried to `kill' your classmates, the rule was that once you were `dead' you couldn't move or speak. Being `dead' was incredibly boring, sometimes the monitoring ship wouldn't pick you up for hours. 

Allen and I ran into the classroom just as the bell rang. This time our instructor was a youngish captain. 

"The scenario for this session is that the crews of two enemy ships are stranded on a damaged space station. The objective of this scenario is to capture, not kill, the other crew. The station is running on emergency power only, there are sections without oxygen, gravity, or both. You have a week to accomplish your goal. The teams will be picked randomly," The captain informed us. 

"Alright," I whispered, "This I can enjoy, much better than desert survival." 

"I can't see why you enjoy blasting people so much," Allen replied, also in a whisper. "I hope we end up on the same team." 

"You know, I might not do as well at capture as I do at kill," I remarked. 

"You'll be good at it, and you know it." 

============================================================== 

The space station was two days from Courscant. On the way there, I organized my team. 

"We'll need to secure one room for a jail and keep its location secret. We can do that by having sentries set in a perimeter around the jail. Then who ever's left will be paired up in squads to search for the other team. Any questions." 

"Yeah," a boy with dark golden hair stood up to face me, "Who put you in charge?" 

"I did," I replied coolly, "Any arguments?" 

The boy took in my confident relaxed stance, "Yes." 

Oh well, some people never know what's best for them. One step forward took me close enough to the boy for what I planned. An open-handed blow to his chin sent him staggering backwards, and a conveniently placed foot returned him to his seat. 

"If you've got a better plan, or noticed a problem with mine I'd be happy to listen," I informed them. "But if all you can do is argue over leadership then I'd thank you to keep quiet." 

No one had anything to say. 

We used an empty storage room for our jail. I spent the first day organizing the jail's security. Then I joined the patrols, taking Allen with me. 

We skirted around an airless area. Then we heard voices coming toward us. The area didn't have gravity in some spots so I grabbed Allen and ran toward a spot we had just passed through. Once there we pushed off the floor. We were drifting peacefully near the ceiling when the other party entered. It consisted of the golden haired trouble maker and a girl with pale cornsilk hair. They were tied up and escorted by Cadet Malee whom I knew from another class, and a bulky humanoid. 

As I'd expected not one member of the little group looked up. A quick shot from my phaser knocked Malee out of the fight, but the humanoid appeared immune to phasers. Now that he knew where we were Allen and I were in trouble. But the humanoid make a mistake in assuming his captives were helpless. The girl took several running steps and kicked the phaser out of his hand, without her hands to balance her the girl fell heavily. Allen quickly kicked off the ceiling then when he was low enough, he dove from the Zero-G nodule. Allen reached the phaser long before the humanoid and raced to a covered area. The boy, after retrieving his, the girl's and Malee's phasers also headed for cover. That left me floating about a foot off the floor in plain sight. 

Many people tend to ignore the fact that bulk and brute strength make little difference in Zero-G combat. The humanoid was used to routing all opposition with these two virtues. This time they made no difference at all, while knowing your battlefield made quite a bit of difference. I won by tricking my opponent in to leaving the Zero-G nodule, the fall was enough to knock him out. 

When he and Malee awoke they were both securely tied up. 

The girl, Tara, had sprained her ankle, so I became a temporary crutch for her while we escorted Malee and the humanoid, to our jail. Even on the two hour trip across the station Ander, the golden haired Cadet, made it obvious to everyone that he resented my taking charge. Eventually we would have to work this out, but not while we had prisoners. 

============================================================== 

Luckily Ander and I didn't meet again till the last day of the week. I had told our whole team at the beginning of this game that we were spending the last day in a close watch on our jail. When we had all collected I was disappointed to see just how few of us there were left. But there was one way to change that. 

"I'm going to get captured," I calmly informed my team. 

"What!?" I wasn't sure if the whole group said it simultaneously, but it was close. 

"Get the arm-brace out of the first-aid kit," I instructed, removing my knife from its sheath. "I'm going to rescue the rest of our team." 

"What's the arm-brace for?" Tara asked as she handed it to me. 

"Watch and you shall see," I answered. I turned the brace over and slit the leather covering the metal brace. The I slid my knife into it's new sheath. The blade fit nicely, but the hilt would have to go. I set the knife on the floor, then stepped on it. The break was a little more ragged than I would gave liked, but it would do. I slid the knife blade into its hidden sheath and strapped the brace on my left arm. 

"Everyone stay put, this won't take long." I admonished. 

============================================================== 

It didn't take long to get captured, and my `broken arm' made the ease with which I was captured more believable. 

They quickly took my phaser and the knife I had borrowed from Allen. But when they started poking around the arm-brace I screamed, "Leave it alone, won't you. My arm's already broken." 

"Sorry," one of my captors remarked. They didn't even tie me up for fear of hurting my arm. 

As soon as they shut the door on their jail, I removed the arm-brace and dug out my knife. Then I ripped off the leather covering on the brace and wrapped it around the knife to create a make-shift hilt. 

"Alright people, we're breaking out of here," I said as I cut my teammates' bonds. 

"We'll need a phaser," one cadet remarked. 

"And I know just how to get one," I replied. "Let's get all this rope out of sight." 

"Okay now everyone stand facing the door, hands behind your back. Jeff, Narzis pretend to get in a fight." 

I moved to stand to the left of the door. Then I yelled, "Hey! There's a fight in here. We can't break it up because they're the only ones that got loose." 

A few seconds later one of our guards poked his head in. "Cut it out you two!" He yelled, raising his phaser. I stepped behind him and put my knife against his throat. The guard fainted. 

I stunned the rest of our guards before they were entirely sure of what was going on. Members of my team scooped up the guards' phasers on the way out. 

Several members of my party were for holing up somewhere near here, but I wanted to get back to the rest of my team before Ander talked them into doing something stupid. I trusted Allen to take care of things for awhile, but he wouldn't be able to control things indefinitely. 

When we did get back it turned out that Ander had taken five people with him and went out to capture more prisoners. 

"What should we do about them?" Allen asked. 

"Nothing," I answered, smiling nastily. "They'll get caught, but we have more than five prisoners, a lot more. And next time Ander won't argue about me taking charge." 

"That's what it all comes down to, isn't it Han," Tara stated, glaring at me, "Ander wouldn't accept you as leader so you're going to let him look like an idiot in front of our instructors." 

"Look sweetheart, leaving our stronghold right now is a sure fire way to get caught. The other team doesn't have a single prisoner, unless they've already caught Ander and his bunch, so they've got to be desperate. They have about five hours left to get their prisoners back and get a good grade on this contest. I'll bet that every person available is looking for us. Right now we're in a deadlock, we can't take anymore prisoners and neither can they. But this team is ahead, we don't want to break the deadlock. So I'm not risking our position, and our grade, to protect the image of several fools!" I explained harshly. 

"Okay, you've got reasons to throw Ander to the wolves," Tara acknowledged. "But you're still enjoying it." 

============================================================== 

I got a very high grade on the scenario, so did the rest of my team, except for Ander and his five friends, or should I say ex-friends. They scored lower than the other team. The other team actually did fairly well. They hadn't won but they had behaved in a very sensible way. No one had ever tried my trick before, so the Captain didn't take off many points for letting their prisoners escape. Instead my team recieved extra points for that little game. 

It had been a great week, but now I was back to all my regular subjects. 

In my math class I noticed several of my teammates from the space station. Experience had taught me to expect difficulties in this situation. While they needed me everything was great, but after the scenario was over, well everything was a lot less than great. 

"You're not such a hot shot in here are you?" Karrie Salus commented handing me back my paper after looking at the grade. I checked it myself, it wasn't that bad, only a B-, I'd done worse. But I could see Cadet Salus' point. It didn't look very good compared to the high A in Survival. I hoped there wouldn't be any members of my team in Republic Government or Standard. In those classes my grades were really awful. 

That was sort of how the year went. I was the best in my more practical classes, and I made sure everyone knew it. In the rest of my classes I kept to myself and did the best I could. I hadn't forgotten what Anakin and Dayvon had said about the Academy's attitude toward outsiders, and I wanted my teachers only to remember me in the classes where I was the best. 

============================================================== 

"Good luck with next year," Allen commented on the last day of the school year. "You sound like we won't be seeing each other then," I commented in confusion. 

"We probably won't. Han, this is the year where they start separating people into two groups: X-wing pilots, who are the ones who have a real future in Starfleet, and the rest of us. The second group gets training as either ground crews or as the crews of the battleships. To get in the first category you usually have to be a member of a Starfleet family or you have to be an exceptional pilot, like you. The rest of us just stay in starfleet long enough to pay the Academy back for training us, then we get jobs on commercial ships. 

"The X-wing pilots eventually end up in command of a squadron of X-wings or as the captain of one of the bigger ships. Then they get promoted to the administration of Starfleet," Allen explained. "You've dodged a lot of the garbage most outsiders in the Academy have to take. Sometimes I think you don't even realize how things work around here. You're protected from that because you're a great pilot, and by the way you keep your past hidden. Then to finish it off Commander Anakin Skywalker is sponsoring you, he's a member of a Fleet family, and he doesn't even need those connections, because he's such a hot pilot. 

"You're lucky, for someone who doesn't come from a fleet family. You won't even know what it's like for the rest of us until you try to get a favored posting." 

"A what?" I asked. 

"A favored posting, Han. One of the safe, highly prestigious, posts that the older fleet families try to save for their relatives," Allen explained. "When an outsider askes for one of those posts, instead of being content with border duty, they run into a solid brick wall. That's when the outsiders figure out it doesn't matter how good they are, because Starfleet wants good pilots on the borders and good friends every where else." 

"That's going to change," I replied. "Anakin said Senator Palpatine is setting up a new order where all that matters is skill." 

"Han, sometimes you are so uninformed about what's really going on that its frightening," Allen remarked. "Especially with your way of making things turn out the way you want them to. Don't let people use you to make things turn out for them. That's what happens in the Survival classes, you're the reason your team always wins, but after its over the other kids don't care about you. In fact they usually dislike you." 

Allen paused, trying to find a clearer way of saying what he was thinking. "Han... Make sure you don't help someone bring about changes that you can't live with." Another pause, "I think your friend Anakin may be in over his head with Palpatine... I've heard, well I guess everyone in Starfleet knows, there are rumors that Anakin Skywalker changed when he got involved with Palpatine, he became Palpatine's puppet. A lot of people who work for the Senator end up like that. 

"Stay away from Senator Palpatine and his new order, please." 

"Don't worry Allen, I'll look before I leap, I promise," I replied. "Now stop being so serious." 

"Remember that promise." 

"I'm going home for the summer," Allen told me. "What about you?" 

"I guess I'll stick around here, goof off a little. If I get bored I can always work on history." I remarked. 

"Han, don't you think you should go home once in awhile? You stay at school for every break. I can believe that your home world is far enough away to make it impossible to visit on a week long vacation, but this time you have over three months!" Allen objected. 

"All you know about my home world is that it's outside of the Republic, that alone should give you a few ideas about why I'm not going there." I smiled a little, "In case you need another hint, it isn't outside the Republic by choice." 

"It's your decision," Allen conceded. "But if you're not going to your home, why don't you come to mine." 

"You're sure your parents won't mind?" I asked. 

"Perfectly sure." 

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	7. Garic

**Finding a Path - Garic**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

"Marla, tighten up your formation," I ordered. 

Her ship moved back into formation. Sometimes it was tough working with a five ship wing, but after I sent Starfleet back three different idiots they'd been somewhat lax in trying to get me a suitable replacement for Mark Tam who had been promoted to commander of his own wing, last year. 

The three pilots they had sent me were a danger to the wing. Starfleet didn't know or care how things worked on the borders. It was run by people who for the most part had come up through the ranks in the heart of the Republic. That kind of Fleet officer didn't understand that if a group was left together long enough the members got to know each other so well and worked together so smoothly that to an outsider it looked like telepathy. When they threw a new person in it could upset our balance for months: years if the pilot wasn't very good, (or at least as long as the pilot survived.) 

If they would send me a half-way decent pilot I might make an effort to bring them into the wing, but Jalis, Carmine, and Troc weren't what you'd call half-way decent pilots. They were what Starfleet must consider expendable pilots. 

I had sent Troc home about three months ago and it was high time Starfleet sent me someone to take his place. Unfortunately the type of person I wanted was rare. The position I needed filled was one Academy graduates usually took, but since this was a dangerous posting it was reserved for people who didn't have any relatives in Starfleet. Until a good pilot from a family unconnected to Starfleet showed up, Starfleet would keep right on shipping me ground crewmen and crewmen from battleships. 

============================================================== 

"Welcome back Garic," Captain Jason Mynos remarked over the intercom as my wing landed in its mobile hanger on his Dreadnought class ship. "If you had one wish, what would it be?" he asked. 

"I wish that Starfleet would let me have Mark Tam back," I answered promptly. 

"I can't grant that wish, but would you settle for a new wingman? His records just arrived." 

Now I waited impatiently for the hanger deck to pressurize. Maybe this one was the one I had been waiting for, but more likely he or she was someone who ought to be behind a desk. Either way I was anxious to find out. 

"Um Jason, would you mind reading some of the pertinent information while I wait for the deck to pressurize?" 

"Garic, I know you've been impatiently waiting for this for three months, I don't think 120 seconds more will hurt you," Jason replied. "But I will meet you at the door with the records." 

Those two minute must have lated 90 seconds each, but eventually Jason and I were scanning the record at a nearby computer terminal. 

My new crewmember's name was Han Solo, and if his records were for real he was just the kid I was looking for. In fact the only thing that worried me was his age. He had graduated from the Acadamy early and was only eighteen. Sometimes the younger ensigns had trouble working under a nonhuman commander. 

My skin was the only obvious reminder that I wasn't human. It had a pale green tint. I thought the color complimented my golden blond hair which was just a touch different from Jason's coppery tinted mop. My eyes were steel gray an unusual but not unheard of color for humans. My body was slender and willowy, hiding the fact I was much stronger than a human. 

Jason had been fooled by my appearance like many other humans. He had been reluctant when I offered to be his sparing partner. At six feet, three inches he is only five inches taller than me, but probably outweighs me by a good hundred pounds. He felt that I wouldn't have a chance. I told him that I was stronger than I appeared but it had taken several matches to convince him of that. 

Our new ensign wouldn't have that problem at least. From the physical description in his records, Han Solo wasn't anywhere near Jason's size. 

It was only two or three weeks before Ensign Solo was to arrive. 

============================================================== 

I smiled in appreciation as I watched my new wingman's flashy landing. 

As soon as the deck was pressurized the X-wing's cockpit popped open and a young man jumped gracefully to the deck. Over one shoulder he had slung a large carry-all. He approached us at a fast jog. 

Jason leaned closer to whisper, "I wonder if he's always in this much of a hurry." 

I whispered back, "If he is it's going to be exhausting to have him around." 

The Ensign slid to a stop before us. With a quick, reflexive, motion he pushed his dark hair off his forehead. "Hi, I'm Han Solo, you're Captain Mynos and Commander Hollis, right?" he exclaimed. 

I nodded, "I'll let you stow your luggage in your quarters, then I'd like to see how you handle your ship." 

"Sure, fine with me," Solo answered. "Do you really see a lot of battles out here?" 

As I answered we started down the corridor toward the crew's quarters, "The Ibrias Coalition makes sure of that. Several of their planets decided the Republic had more to offer them so they pulled out of the Coalition and they took a number of politically unallied planets into Republic space when they did. The Coalition wants all the planets that didn't specifically request membership in the Republic back." 

"That doesn't sound all too unreasonable," the kid remarked. 

"The problem with that is those planets weren't officially members of the Coalition. They just happened to be in the space the Coalition claimed, but when some of the Coalition planets left it in favor of the Republic they took the space around their planets with them, and some of those unallied planets were in the space they claimed. Now if the Republic were to give up those planets we would also have to give up an alley of space between the planets and the Coalition's space. In the end our border would look like a flattened `S' with a few extra turns. If either side took it into its head to get hostile the other side would undoubtedly lose the entire area." I explained. 

"And if they're trying to create a border like that it probably means they intend to be hostile," Han finished. 

============================================================= 

It was a lucky thing Starfleet sent Han Solo when it did. A month after his arrival the Ibrias Coalition finally came to understand that the Republic had no intention of giving up the planets in question. At that point the Coalition gave up the petty harassment we had been dealing with for over a year and declared war. 

Starfleet sent several other X-wing squadrons to deal with the situation but none were good enough to take much of the pressure off my people. We flew every battle until we had become so exhausted that we were a danger to ourselves. Then I split us into two three ship wings and we worked in shifts. 

I lead the wing consisting of myself, Han Solo, and Rick Jaz. The second half of the wing was lead by my First Officer, Crysta Jame, her two wingmen where Marla Corish, and Carmen. 

I was incredibly proud of my Wing's performance. We were showing Senator Palpatine that non-humans were an important part of the Republic and that we could work efficiently with humans. In my wing humans were a minority. I was not human, neither were Crysta Jame, Rick Jaz, or Carmen. Crysta Jame looked like a spun glass figurine, giving rise to her nickname Crystal Gem. Rick Jaz was a feliniod. And Carmen, the most unusual of us all, was a form changer. She was not a true Shape Shifter in that she always retained the same color, silver, and the same mass, but her body could stretch itself into any shape she wished. As alien as we were, Han and Marla, who were completely human, worked very well with us. We were the best! Of any team sent to the Ibrias Coalition, human, non-human, or mixed, this wing, my wing was the best! 

That was until Senator Palpatine sent Anakin Skywalker's wing to take over. That wing had been a team since they were all cadets in the Academy. They worked together almost as if they were one person, controlled by one person's will, which could be true if several of the rumors about Skywalker were true. 

Skywalker brought with him the most disturbing orders I'd ever received. No longer was the Republic content with simply holding it's own borders as it had done for well over a century. It wanted to conquer the Coalition. And once it was conquered all troublesome planets were to be badly damaged as a lesson. A lesson to show the stupidity of defying the might of the Republic. 

Definitely strange, it was a complete reversal of the Republic's founding values. For this order to be legal the Republic must have repealed its noninterference directive and the thousands of laws based on that directive. 

============================================================== 

Slowly the Coalition was conquered, then destroyed. The deeper we got into Coalition space, the quieter Han became. I was worried about him. Since the time Han had showed up here, he had given all the signs of being someone who likes to hear himself talk. Now Han spent as much time as he could staring at the stars. His fighting had changed as well. He seemed to be watching the enemy ships, looking for something, or someone. How he would react to finding what he looked for I couldn't even guess. In any case it was high time I discovered what was bothering my wingman. 

As I walked into the observatory, I heard Han talking to someone whose voice I couldn't recognize. Curiously I moved closer to see who it was. 

Han stood close to the huge clearsteel window, Anakin Skywalker, a menacing figure in black battle armor stood near him. 

"Anakin," Han began. "We'll be fighting over Corellus in a day or two, do you think they'll join the fight?" 

"I've seen the way you search for Trish Del among the enemy ships. Han, that shows you already know Corellus will defend its new allies in the Coalition," Skywalker replied. 

"I wanted you to tell me I was wrong, that Corellus wouldn't be fighting against us," Han sounded as if their weren't any stars left in his universe. 

Skywalker gripped his shoulder and slowly turned Han to face him. "Han, you know Trish Del is going to be out there, fighting for the Coalition someday. Pretending she isn't only hurts you because you won't be prepared when that day comes." 

Han turned back to the stars, Skywalker and I both knew there was something else he need to ask, and we waited. Skywalker's hand remained resting on Han's shoulder. I couldn't see how Han could stand to be touched by that creature of darkness. Skywalker seemed to want to force Han down a chosen path, but in a way he was kind to the boy. 

Finally Han asked, "Will we have to attack the planet?" 

"Yes," That was all Skywalker said, he stood still for a moment longer, then turned and walked out of the room. I tried to melt back into the shadows but he saw me anyway. "Han wants to be left alone," the dark figure commented. His voice was strangely compelling. "Leave," he commanded. 

A few minutes later I found myself in my quarters with no memory of how I had gotten there. I headed back to the observatory. As I approached it my feet turned down the wrong hall. Surprised I turned back, my memory blanked again. This time I came to myself on the bridge. When I was finally able to enter the observatory Han had already left. 

I wondered why the planet Corellus held such significance for Han, but I wasn't able to talk with him until after the next battle. 

============================================================== 

During the battle, Han found what he was looking for. 

Over the com I was half listening to the usual warnings, shouts of triumph, and the ear shattering shrieks of a ship being torn apart when Han's voice suddenly cut through the noise. 

"Pull out Trish!" he yelled. I remembered Skywalker saying Han was looking for someone called Trish Del. 

Carefully I locked on to Han's transmission. 

"Get out of here!" Han ordered. 

"Traitor!" a girl's voice hissed. 

"Trish please!" In my mind I could see him flinch at her words. "I don't want you to get killed." 

"Then fight with me, against your planet's enemies!" the girl demanded, suddenly making Han's reluctance to attack Corellus perfectly understandable. I hadn't realized Han's home planet was outside of the Republic. 

"My planet that wants to have me killed?" Han's voice snapped angrily. "I didn't want to fight it but I certainly won't defend it!" 

Suddenly the girl fired on him. Han's X-wing skirted the laser beam. The girl continued to attack, she didn't appear to be very good, and for a few more shots Han just dodged her fire. Then Skywalker's voice rang over the com system. 

"Fight Ensign Solo, fight for the Empire you swore loyalty to." he ordered. It was disturbing to hear him refer to the Republic as an Empire, but that was what it was becoming. 

Han responded to Skywalker's order with a reluctant half-hearted attack. Slowly the girl improved till it was apparent that her earlier attack had been as unenthusiastic as Han's. They pushed each other to an all out battle that took them from the middle of the battle field to empty space. A short while later Han's ship returned to the battle alone. He now fought a grim battle, selecting one target after another and blowing it up without the flourishes that usually characterized Han's flying. 

Worriedly I contacted him, "Han, are you alright?" I asked. 

"Yes, I'm fine!" he snapped. "What would be wrong with me, I just left my closest friend trapped in a disabled ship!" 

I relaxed a little, at least Han's battle hadn't killed either him or his friend. 

After the battle was over I wasn't surprised to find Han waiting at the airlock, watching the survivors of the damaged ships being picked up. 

When a small blond girl was brought abroad, Han relaxed for the first time since the battle. His reaction identified the girl as Trish Del. She was also looking around the room. For a second she and Han stared at each other both looking relieved and slightly guilty then she turned away and Han left the room. 

I caught up with Han a few seconds later. We walked to the observatory in silence. 

"I shouldn't have fired on her," Han said finally. 

"She fired on you," I remarked. 

"Trish had a right to," Han replied. "I did betray my world." He looked out the window, not scanning the stars today, but staring fixedly at a nearby solar system. 

"From what you said I don't think you owe your world much." 

"I owe Trish a lot more than just not killing her when I could have," he commented dully. 

What could I say to that? 

"And tomorrow I'm going to attack my home planet. A lot of people will get hurt, most them won't be responsible for what the Rebel Government did to me," Han continued. 

Suddenly an idea occurred to me. It wasn't much but it was all I could do, "I could put you on the list of people who can't fly tomorrow." 

Han looked at me for the first time since we began speaking. Then he turned back to watch his solar system. "That won't stop the attack on Corellus." 

"No, but at least you wouldn't have to be a part of it," I acknowledged. 

"Thanks," Han said very quietly. 

============================================================== 

"Look Skywalker," I yelled. "Han's sick today, he can't fly!" 

"I'll be the judge of that," came the calm reply. 

I stepped between him and the door, "You may be in charge of this war Commander, but I'm Han Solo's superior officer. If I say he's too sick to fly, you have to accept it." I fought down an incredibly strong urge to duck out of a confrontation with this dark being, but Han was a member of my wing, and I always took good care of my people. There was no way I was letting this uncaring shadow force Han to attack his home planet. No one deserved to be put under that kind of stress. 

For a second the air around me became solid then Skywalker turned and walked away. I relaxed and climbed into my ship, at least that was over. Now all I had to do was attack an almost helpless planet. These missions were enough to make anyone sick. 

============================================================== 

Jason and I had called together my team and his crewmen for a very important decision. 

"I'm sure you've all realized that the Republic is no longer the place we swore to defend," Jason began tiredly. There were weary nods from our audience, they already understood what we were asking but it was still hard to go on. "We have all seen where it is heading. Senator Palpatine's laws are clearly biased against nonhumans. He is taking power away from the Council and keeping it for himself. Palpatine is trying to tighten his personal control over every aspect of life in the Republic." 

"We no longer live in a republic," I added, thinking of Skywalker's comment during the battle. "We live and fight for an emerging empire. An empire that has little respect for the freedom and rights of its citizens and less for those of it's neighbors." 

Jason nodded, "Well the point of this meeting is Garic and I think things are just going to get worse, and we thought it would be best if we left the Republic right now. We're already outside of its boundaries and Commander Skywalker has his hands full with the war. There will never be a better time to leave." 

Everyone looked at the people surrounding them, seeing they all agreed. It wasn't a pleasant realization, but they had all known what Jason and I said was true long before we gave voice to it. This crew had been together so long that they felt more loyalty to Jason and I, and their fellow crewmen than they did to the people we protected. 

"We're all coming with you," one young woman stated. 

============================================================== 

Afterwards Han come to talk to me. "I can't go with you," He said softly. "Anakin wants me to be part of some program Senator Palpatine is setting up." He paused, "I'm sorry, but Anakin really wants me to do this." 

I wanted to scream at him, to tell him what sort of person his precious Anakin really was. But from the way he said that name I knew it wouldn't do any good. 

I wished we had more time, right now Han was a very hurt little kid. Skywalker was some one he knew and trusted. It wasn't hard to see why Han wanted to let him take charge for awhile. That Skywalker would take advantage of Han's trust by getting him involved with Palpatine right now sickened me. 

I thought about telling Han that Skywalker had wanted him to attack Corellus, but Han would probably refuse to believe it. If I did attack Skywalker, Han probably wouldn't listen to anything I said after that. 

"I don't think you're making a good decision Han," I stated firmly. "The Republic has already asked to much of you. By asking you to fight Trish Del. Han I don't want you to get hurt, get out of the Republic before you're asked to do anything worse." 

"There can't be anything worse," Han's voice shook, "There can't be anything worse than that in the entire Universe." 

"I wish I thought that was true," I warned him. 

"I can't go with you," Han repeated, returning to the beginning of our discussion. "Anakin asked me to stay." 

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	8. Solo

**Finding a Path - Solo**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

"Markos, relax, listen to your inner self," Anakin admonished in a hypnotically soothing tone. 

"Yes, Lord Vador," He replied. 

That was Anakin's new name and rank, Darth Vador, Dark Lord of Sith. It sounded sinister to me, so I still called him Anakin. Sometimes I wondered what it meant but I was usually to busy too worry about it. Senator Palpatine's program required me to become an even better pilot than I already was. I was also being taught new maneuvers, ones that required a group of pilots to fly as one. 

That was easier than one might think. All you had to do was clear your mind of everything but the maneuver, then somehow we knew when to start a particular part of the maneuver. It wasn't timing. At first I had tried to time it, we all had, but Anakin had cured us of that. Now we just knew. It was like something outside of us was telling us, like we were all part of some greater whole rather than individuals. Every day it got easier to just let that outside force take control, and slowly it was becoming a part of us. Sometimes it bothered me. I felt like I was trapped in a fog, watching my body act, but not really in control of it. I never fought it very hard. Since I had come here what happened over Corellus didn't hurt anymore. It was like it had happened in another life time. 

"Now!" something whispered inside my head. Automatically I pulled up on my control stick. Without interest I noticed that I had been only a few feet away from colliding with another ship. After three months here I trusted the voice to warn me before a collision. Lately we had been getting much closer to the other ships. But nothing ever went wrong so why worry about it? 

After we completed that day's practice Anakin told each of us how we had done. I didn't pay much attention, I aways did well. 

"Han, did you want to speak with me?" Anakin asked. 

Startled I glanced around the room, all the others had already left. Anakin pulled off the gruesome battle helmet he now wore. Without it he looked more like the Anakin I had known on Corellus. 

"Has Trish been released yet?" I asked, for lack of anything else to say. 

"No, she will be terminated at the end of the week." 

It didn't really matter whether she had been released or not, either way she would still hate me. I started to leave the room. I was half way to the door when I realized what Anakin had said. 

"Terminated!" I nearly screamed, "You're going to kill her!" 

"She is of no further use to us," Anakin replied calmly, "She has already been interrogated." 

"Trish interrogated!" It made sense, she was a member of an enemy army, but I still couldn't believe that Anakin had let that happen to her. For the first time in over two months I was really thinking about something. "Anakin, we can't let them hurt Trish anymore!" I plead. 

"Han, I know you were friends with Trish before, but she fought against the Republic. Senator Palpatine can't release her to fight against us again," Anakin's voice was coolly detached. 

I felt like I was back in a depressurized airlock without my helmet on. Then I was drowning in memories of a hundred things people had tried to tell me that I had disregarded. 

*"When was the last time you saw Commander Skywalker?"* 

*"He's a Dark Jedi; he's gone power crazy."* 

*"I think Anakin's in over his head with Palpatine."* 

*"Skywalker changed when he got involved with Palpatine; he became the Senator's puppet. A lot of people who work with Palpatine end up like that."* 

*"Han stay away from Senator Palpatine and his new order, please."* 

*"I don't think you're making a good decision, Han."* 

*"The Republic has already asked too much of you."* 

*"We no longer live in a republic, we live and fight for an emerging empire."* 

*"Fight Ensign Solo, fight for the Empire you swore loyalty to!"* 

But I didn't swear loyalty to an empire, I swore it to a republic. 

*"Senator Palpatine is setting up a new order..."* 

*"Palpatine doesn't want people to trust him, he wants them to obey him. Can't anyone see that?"* 

*"There's no reason for us to stay on a sinking ship."* 

*"I'll look before I leap, I promise."* 

I had heard it so many times, how could I have ignored it? So many of my friends had tried to tell me Anakin wasn't the same. He wasn't even there anymore, there was just Darth Vador, Dark Lord of Sith, inhuman, behind the black armor and the hideous mask. 

I had known the Republic wasn't turning out right, but I had pretended it was. Like Trish and the Rebel Government. 

*"If you think standing by the Rebel Government is going to actually help, why is it doing this to you Trish?"* 

*"Things will get better."* 

*"She hates mirrors"* Because she hated seeing that she didn't really believe things would get better. I'd been hiding from the truth about the Republic, just like Trish hid from the truth about the Rebel Government. 

*"I'll look before I leap, I promise."* I'd really kept that promise hadn't I? 

"Han, is something wrong?" Vador asked. 

I stormed out of the room; he wouldn't help Trish. Vador didn't care about anyone who wouldn't help his Emperor. 

I had helped to change Corellus in a way that I couldn't live with. I didn't see any way to stop the Republic becoming another place I couldn't stand but this time I wasn't going to help it change! 

Vador and Palpatine were using all of the people in this program to help them create their empire! Well, they weren't going to use me anymore! 

In my room I tried to calm down, getting mad and not thinking wasn't going to help. Not thinking was how I got in this mess in the first place. Actually that's how the Rebel Government got in trouble too. Besides Vador and Palpatine didn't want me to think. They wanted all the people in their empire to be unthinking robots that just did as they were told. Ever since I'd entered this program I'd been the perfect citizen of their empire. Well that was going to change, from now on I was taking orders from only one person... Me! 

Now I had several goals, rescuing Trish, because I owed her that, and I wanted to get rid of the last debt I had to anyone. Then I'd need to escape myself and find something to do once I had. 

I certainly wanted to find something better than the Republic to support. 

*"Go search for your perfect planet, but you'll never find it, every planet has problems."* 

*"You're crazy Han, you just got rid of one government, and now you want to get involved with another. Me, I want freedom."* 

*"I just want a government that hasn't gone off the deep end." 

"Han, I hate to disappoint you, but every government is run by people, and if enough of those people have problems they can drive the whole system round the bend."* 

Maybe they were right. Maybe planets and governments were just asking for trouble. But what else was there? 

*"Planets aren't safe, or stable. They're always changing, growing, and dying. But space is always the same."* 

I could always get a ship, a small world of my own. 

*"A lot of those people like the action out on the borders, so they're perfectly happy staying there. The rest of them get mad, quit and become the best smugglers in the galaxy."* 

Yes, I'd had the answer all along. I'd become a smuggler; except I didn't know how to become a smuggler; or where to get a ship; or how to get off this base without getting caught, especially if I planned to take Trish with me. 

============================================================== 

The next day I learned that a smuggler named Lando Calrissian was being held on the base, and that his ship, the Millennium Falcon, was impounded here as well. But I'd still need a distraction while I rescued Calrissian and Trish. 

What if I rescued all the prisoner on the base, there were over a hundred. With all those people running around loose no one would have time to bother with me. 

============================================================== 

It was five days since I had realized what was going on and now I was ready to make my escape. All my stuff was on the Falcon, and I had set it up so that I was stationed in the detention area today. 

Due to a little computer malfunction (that I had caused) I was the only person on duty for the next three hours. It was all too easy to take the keys and start opening the cell doors. I had memorized the numbers of the cells Calrissian and Trish were being held in. 

I came to Calrissian's first. As the door slid open I shouted, "Hey Calrissian, we're escaping, you and I and a friend of mine are taking your ship." 

Calrissian shrugged, "It's your escape plan; but I've got to ask, why my ship?" 

"I'll explain later." 

"It's your plan," he repeated. "Is the Wookie the friend you were talking about?" 

I stopped releasing prisoners long enough to look around and notice the Wookie, "No, he can come and go as he pleases." 

Several cells later we found Trish Del. 

"Trish, I'm going to rescue you," I announced. 

She walked slowly to the door of her cell, "Why Han, how kind of you. After you made sure I'd get caught!" 

"Look, I didn't want to, but you attacked me!" I yelled. "Now I'm getting you out of here, so you had better just come along." 

"With you, you must be kidding." Trish laughed. "I'll find my own way out, thank you." 

"You'll never make it," I exploded. "I know the base; I have a plan, you don't!" 

"I'll take my chances; it's better than being stuck on a ship with you!" 

"Look you two," Calrissian broke in. "We are in the middle of escaping from a prison, we don't have time for this. Now lets go back to my ship and then you can fight." 

Trish turned to the smuggler, "I'm not going anywhere with him!" 

"Fine," Calrissian snapped, "Good luck escaping. Goodbye." 

"No," I commanded, "she's coming with us." 

"I am not!" 

"Yes you are!" 

"Am not!" 

Calrissian and the Wookie looked at each other in disgust. "They sound like a couple of five-year-olds," Calrissian commented. 

The Wookie barked an affirmative. 

Then Calrissian grabbed Trish by the shoulders and the Wookie grabbed me. "Come along now children," Calrissian remarked as they guided us down the hall. 

"Can you lead us to the Falcon?" Calrissian asked me. 

"Sure." 

At that point Trish broke free of Calrissian and ran down the hall. I would have gone after her but the Wookie stopped me. 

At the corner Trish stopped and turned back to us. "Sorry I shot at you Han," She yelled. "Clear skies." 

"Clear skies Trish," I replied. "Ask the turbo-lift to take you to docking bay E." 

"Thanks," Trish yelled before disappearing down another hall. 

I lead the Wookie and Calrissian to docking bay B and the Millennium Falcon. 

Just as we reached the ship's ramp a being stepped into the ship's entry way. "Stop!" He ordered. 

"So close, we were so close," Calrissian sighed. 

I stepped forward, my blaster drawn. "Anakin?" I asked my blaster lowering. He wasn't wearing his battle armor, and for the first time since he left Corellus he really looked like the Anakin Skywalker I had known. 

Anakin was as shocked as I was, "Han, you did this?" 

"I had to, Garic was right, the Republic isn't the same anymore. Senator Palpatine is changing it so he can have more power. So he can control more people. Palpatine is like the Colonists, he wants everyone to be his slave." 

"Palpatine can give us power Han," Anakin objected. 

"I don't want his power. I just want to be left alone, I'm sick of governments. I've tried three. One tried to make me a slave, one tried to kill me, and this one asked me to attack my own world. Now I just want everyone to leave me alone!" 

"Han, I promise I won't tell anyone what you did, then you can go back to the Senator's program. You are just having a..." 

"Listen to me Anakin, I don't want to go back!" I screamed. 

"I think you're making a big mistake Han, but I won't stop you," Anakin walked away from the ship. 

"I don't believe this!" Calrissian exclaimed. 

"Come on we don't have all day," I snapped. 

I wished Anakin hadn't shown up. I didn't like knowing that Darth Vador hadn't completely destroyed Anakin yet. Knowing that made me want to stay, but I had already discovered I couldn't fight the Senator. He had some sort of weird power over people that I couldn't understand. 

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	9. Lando

**Finding a Path - Lando**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

The Falcon was safe in hyperspace so I turned my attention to other matters. "I take it you have a reason for rescuing me?" I asked Han Solo. 

He smiled nervously, suddenly looking a lot younger. "Yes, I want you to teach me about being a smuggler." 

I did owe him for rescuing me, and Starfleet turned out a number of impressive pilots. "Okay kid, you've got a deal." 

"Um," Han started. 

"Yeah kid?" 

"What are we going to do with him," Han gestured to the Wookie, "I don't think he speaks Standard." 

The Wookie handed Han a data pad, on it was written, "I can understand it." 

"That's great," Han exclaimed, "So, where should we drop you off?" 

"I will stay with you," The Wookie wrote, "I am in your debt, I was slated for execution." 

"You don't owe me anything," Han objected, "I just set everyone free to distract the base while I escaped." 

The Wookie shrugged, "You still saved my life. The reason why doesn't matter." 

"Wookies feel very strongly about things like this," I whispered. 

"If you really want to stay I won't stop you," Han stated, "by the way, what's your name?" 

"Chewbacca." 

============================================================== 

"What are we doing here?" Han asked, looking around the dilapidated bar. 

"We're setting up a job," I whispered, "now be quiet." 

I looked over at the guy I was supposed to meet, then back at Han and Chewbacca. Telleno was a pretty tough customer. Not the type of guy you wanted to approach with two amateurs in tow. 

Han and Chewbacca were both excellent pilots, but when it came to setting up a job, excellent was the last word I would have used to describe them. Han's temper was too hot, and he still sounded like a Starfleet cadet. Those two factors combined made it almost impossible for him to get anyone to trust him with a job. Chewbacca's problem was much simpler. Hardly anyone understood his language, and his vocal cords wouldn't let him speak Standard. 

Han was trying to learn Chewbacca's language, and I thought he understood it fairly well even if he couldn't even begin to speak it. But Chewbacca complained that he had to say everything very slowly and at least twice before Han understood. For quick communication they had also set up a system of hand signals. 

I turned back to Han, "Why don't you and your furry sidekick stay here?" 

"How am I supposed to learn about being a smuggler if you're always leaving me behind?" Han muttered rebelliously. 

"Just stay put, okay." 

Han turned to sign something to Chewbacca, and I found myself wishing I had thought to learn their silent language. If I had I would know what sort of trouble Han was planning now. 

"We'll stay," Han promised with his I'm-trying-to-look-innocent smile. 

I looked at Telleno who was impatiently tapping his foot, then back at Han and Chewbacca. I guess I'd just have to take Han at his word. 

Telleno looked up as I approached his table. "About time you got here." 

"Sorry to keep you waiting, what's the job?" 

"Captain Calrissian, I'd like you to meet my business associate, Eric Jaff." For the first time I noticed the young man sitting next to Telleno, "Eric represents a small group on his home world. He has managed to purchase a number of weapons for that group. All you have to do is pick up the weapons then take them and Mr. Jaff back to Corellus." 

"How much are you paying?" I asked. 

"1500 credits," Eric answered, "That's all the CRMC can afford." 

"2500 credits," I demanded. "If we get caught with a cargo like that it's the death penalty for us." 

"We don't have that kind of money," Eric insisted. 

"Alright, 2000," I pushed. 

Eric hesitated, "It's a deal," He agreed reluctantly. 

"Great, follow me," I instructed. "First we'll pick up my two partners. Then we'll get your weapons." 

All my earlier apprehension at leaving Han alone returned with a rush as I saw Chewbacca standing by himself. 

"Where is he?" I demanded. 

Chewbacca turned and lead me back toward the Sabacc tables. Scanning the tables I soon spotted Han sitting at one game. When he noticed me a brilliant smile lit up his face. I rushed over. 

"Did you enjoy setting up the job?" he asked calmly, "I had a marvelous time waiting for you." 

"What do you think you're doing!" I yelled. 

"Hey, we're playing a game here," one man objected. 

Han ignored him, "I'm waiting for you, you didn't expect me to do nothing at all while you were busy?" he asked innocently. 

"How much money have you lost?" I sighed. 

"I guess I got lucky this time, I actually made 15 credits," Han replied, "but next time I might be playing someone better." 

"Next time!" I gasped in disbelief. "There won't be a next time! I'm the only gambler in this partnership!" 

"Will you shut up and let the kid play!" the dealer demanded. 

"I'm out of the game," Han replied, "and Lando, unless you take me with you to set up a job or lock me up on the Falcon, how do you plan to stop me from doing whatever I please? I wouldn't advise locking me up though, I might find something even..." Suddenly Han broke off, standing up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. I turned to see what he was staring at. 

"What are you doing here?" Eric Jaff asked. 

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." 

"Han, I see you've already met our passenger," I commented. 

"Our what?" Han exclaimed just as Eric asked, "He's your partner?" Both of them sounded like they'd just found half a worm in their apple. 

"Han do you ever leave a favorable impression on people?" I asked. 

He blushed, probably remembering the girl he tried to rescue or some other similiar incident. "You can't trust Eric," Han warned. 

"At least the CRMC doesn't want to kill me. Can you say the same of the organization you supported?" Eric remarked. 

"The Rebel Government was subverted by the CRMC Eric, that's why I left the planet." 

"Look Han," I interrupted, "Eric is paying us good money to deliver him and his cargo to Corellus. For 2000 credits I could get along with anyone for a few weeks." 

"You don't know Eric Jaff," Han replied. 

"I'm not going to put up with him for the time it takes to get to Corellus," Eric added. 

"Okay, I've got another solution. For the duration of the trip Han, you'll stay in the cockpit and Eric, you'll stay in the lounge," I explained. 

"Fine with me," Han remarked. "Come on Chewie, lets get the Falcon checked out." 

============================================================== 

My plan kept Han and Eric from fighting for about a week. By that time Han was bored with looking at the stars, so he and Chewbacca decided to play this game they'd found on some second class planet we'd stopped on. Unfortunately the game table was set up in the lounge. 

I was busy elsewhere on the ship and failed to notice the trouble till it was too late to keep my ship in one piece. 

Afterwards Han explained that it had started with the usual insults. Then one of them had challenged the other to a round of target practice to prove who was the better marksman. (They couldn't agree on who did the challenging.) 

Eric was the first to shoot, and he forgot to exchange his blaster's combat charge for a practice charge. His first shot missed the target globe but knocked out the hyperdrive. Eric insisted it was Han's fault because Han hadn't told him he needed a special charge. Han replied that "any idiot knows you don't practice with a combat charge." Then he claimed responsibility for the incident. Han said that he "should have remembered that Eric wasn't any idiot." 

None of which changed the fact that we were dead in the water and were going to have to send out a distress call. Not something I enjoy doing while carrying an illegal cargo. 

"Do you two understand the penalty for gun running?" I moaned. "It's death, as in the most permanent form of punishment available, as in being executed!" 

"It's not my fault!" Han and Eric claimed simultaneously. 

"Oh yes it is!" I yelled. "It's both of your faults that we're all going to be executed!" 

"You're really hung up on this execution thing," Han commented. "It's not good to be so pessimistic." 

"Why be negative!" I shouted, "I mean we've got two choices, right! Staying here and starving or sending out a distress call that will probably be answered by a Republic ship! A ship run by people whose laws we are breaking! Why worry, I am a gambler after all, why should I be worried if the odds for our survival are two to zero against it?!" 

"Well they might not find the guns," Eric commented hopefully. 

"Go right ahead!" I exploded. "Stake all our lives on a `might not' with a bunch of Republic officers poking around the ship wondering why we're out here in the first place!" 

Chewbacca growled something. 

"Could you repeat that?" Han requested. 

This time Chewie made each sound clear and distinct. Han tilted his head to one side, listening carefully. 

"That just might work," Han remarked. 

"What did he say?" I demanded impatiently. 

"Chewie just pointed out that we have a cargo bay besides the contraband compartment. The guns are hidden and if they ask why we're out here we just say that we're heading back to our home port after delivering a load of some sort of legal cargo," Han interpreted. 

"And," he added, "If they don't believe us, we'll tell 'em Eric hijacked us." 

At that Eric started looking angry. "It would be more believable if we told them you and Eric were a team," I observed. "After all, it was both of your faults." 

"Okay, I get the point," Han exclaimed, "We'll just tell 'em Chewie's story, and we'll be convincing." 

"You'll see, everything will work out wonderfully," Eric added. 

"If it doesn't I'm going to request that you and Han get executed first," I told them. "That way I can watch." 

============================================================== 

My worst fears came to life when a Republic battle cruiser dropped out of hyperspace along side. 

After we explained our problem, the ship's Captain and a young engineer boarded the Falcon. To my surprise Han knew, and even more shocking, was friends with the engineer. 

"Hey Allen," He exclaimed as the pair exited the airlock. "How are ya doin'?" 

"Han, what are you doing out here?" the engineer asked. 

"Remember how you thought I should visit my home world sometime," Han began. "Well that's what I'm doing." 

The Captain looked questioningly at the young engineer. 

"Han does live out this way," Allen assured his Captain. 

"If you know these people, I can return to the ship," the Captain replied. 

For the first time since I felt the hyperdrive go out I relaxed a tiny bit. We had been incredibly lucky that Han's friend was on the ship that found us. 

Han lead the engineer to our hyperdrive, and I quietly trailed along. 

"What happened to this drive?" Allen asked. 

"Can't you tell?" Han replied smiling, "We were having a disagreement and Eric shot it." 

"If you say so. Han why are you really out here?" 

"Like I said, I'm visiting home," Han replied. 

"Please Han, I'd appreciate it if you would tell the truth," Allen commented. 

"I'm telling the truth!" Han insisted. Allen looked hurt, then Han added, "I just neglected to mention I was going home for business not sentimental reasons." 

"Would you mind telling me what business?" Allen asked. In the shadow of the doorway I tensed. 

"I'd love to tell you, but only if you don't tell anyone else," Han replied. 

"Then I assume your business isn't legal?" Allen suggested. 

"As my partner, and less than enthusiastic teacher has pointed out quite frequently in the last few days; if we get caught, we get killed." 

"I don't even want to know the details," Allen remarked. 

I slipped into the room, "A little too trusting aren't we?" I whispered as I passed Han. 

"How long till it's fixed?" I asked leaning over Allen. 

Allen started banging his head against the cover of the small maintenance hatch he had been peering into. "You move very quietly," he commented. "The repairs will take about a week." 

"A week, we're going to be stuck here for a week!" I yelled. 

"Relax Lando," Han instructed. "What could happen in a week?" 

"The best that could happen is that I'll be trapped on the same ship as you and Eric for a week with nothing for either of you to do. I can't even imagine the worst." 

============================================================== 

Ten hours before the hyperdrive's new casing set Captain Kelnare received a report from another battle cruiser, the Marigo. It was information on a hostile ship. The report ended when the Marigo was destroyed by the other ship. And naturally the hostile ship's ETA from our current location was seven hours. 

"I've called for reinforcements," Kelnare sighed. "But if no one interferes, that ship will reach several inhabited planets before the calvary gets to this sector of space. So I'll have to engage it out here. Our other battle cruiser lasted about ten minutes. I'm sorry Captain Calrissian, but there's no way I can protect your ship or even your crew." 

"The Falcon isn't exactly helpless," Han suggested. 

"Thanks," Kelnare replied. "If it were a close match another ship just might make the difference. But the Marigo, a battle cruiser exactly like my ship was badly out classed by the ship we're going to be fighting. Your battered freighter couldn't make a difference." 

"We have another advantage the Marigo didn't have," Han insisted. "We have time and information on the enemy ship. If we use those things, we might come up with a workable plan." 

"I've already got most of my officers doing just that, but if you want to join them I would welcome your help." Captain Kelnare stated. 

Han nodded, "Who knows, I might find something they missed." 

"I'm going too," Eric declared. 

"I guess we'll all go," I added, glad that Han and Eric would have something to do besides fight while we waited. 

============================================================== 

"Well, well, what have we got here?" Han said a smile evident in his voice. 

Kelnare walked around the table to peer over Han's shoulder, "They're using dispersal screens," he commented, not understanding why Han was so excited. 

"Dispersal screens aren't any good against solid objects," Han explained. 

"I know, but almost everyone uses them because they're better against energy weapons than deflector shields, and cheaper than combined shielding. Unfortunately that doesn't do us much good, battle cruisers don't carry anything but energy weapons." Kelnare replied. 

"I wasn't thinking of attacking them with a bunch of antique missiles," Han objected. "I want to ram the ship with an X-wing stuffed full of explosives." 

"Who would pilot the X-wing?" Kelnare's first officer asked. 

"We've got five hours, can't you guys rig one with a remote guidance system?" Han replied. 

The Chief Engineer looked thoughtful, "We could install the guidance system from one of our probes, that should allow you to control the X-wing by remote, but you wouldn't be able to fire the lasers." 

"Who needs 'em?" Han replied enthusiastically. "The other X-wings can cover it till they're right along side the ship." 

"I'm not convinced that an X-wing could destroy that ship," one of the other officers commented. 

"If I crash it through the bridge window the ship should be damaged badly enough that the Falcon and your Corona could finish it off," Han remarked. 

"It's the best plan anyone's come up with," I added. 

Kelnare looked around the room at his officers, "This plan may be a shot in the dark," he remarked quietly, "but it's also our only hope." 

============================================================== 

The ship dropped out of hyperspace about a hundred meters ahead of us. It looked like an enormous Invincible class Dreadnought, and it could have carried a crew with the population of a respectably sized city. It's hull was a gleaming black, unmarred except for the blood red letters declaring the ships name, The Vampire. 

Everyone on both of our ships was ready for this moment. A cloud of X-wings exploded from the Corona. In the center of the cloud was the remote ship, piloted by one of Kelnare's people. Han and Chewbacca were waiting in the Falcon's gun turrets. For this battle I was piloting the ship. Han might have been the hotter pilot, (although I'd never admit that to him) but I didn't want to give away the Falcon's hidden capabilities, and Han could never resist adding frills when he flew. 

The Corona followed the X-wings and I took the Falcon into battle. Laser blasts dispersed harmlessly against the Vampire's shield, while we dodged the ship's return fire. Suddenly all but one of the X-wings pulled back, that one ship crashed headlong into The Vampire's bridge. Instantly Kelnare and I attacked. Han and Chewbacca had set the Falcon's lasers so they shot an incredibly concentrated beam of energy, forcing the dispersal shields to do more than a normal amount of work. Everyone focused their attack on several of The Vampire's vital points. 

Only a few minutes later the crippled Vampire struck back. Apparently we had done a great deal of damage, for the battle was just about even. I shrugged slightly, "Han, Chewie, it looks like it's time to unveil the true Falcon. 

"About time," Han replied. "Lets leave 'em speachless." 

Amaze them we did, the Falcon may look like a junk heap, but it flies like its namesake. 

The Falcon's abilities gave us the battle. About fifteen minutes later the Vampire self destructed. 

Kelnare had wanted to find out where the ship was from, but he acknowledged that no prisoners was a heck of a lot better than no victory. 

============================================================== 

"Thank you for your help in the battle," someone behind me said. 

I turned to see Captain Kelnare standing in the airlock. "And tell Solo that without his idea we certainly would have failed to delay the Vampire long enough for our reinforcements to arrive at the Namree system. Over a million people live there." 

"Don't get too grateful to us," I replied, "if I could have protected the Falcon any other way I would have." 

"This ship really doesn't need much protecting," Kelnare remarked. "It may look like a floating scrape yard, but it certainly can fly, and it has a pretty powerful punch to boot." 

I tensed, this did not look good. 

"I should be very curious about why an honest cargo skipper like yourself would need a ship like the Falcon," I started to reach for my blaster just as he finished, "but at the moment I'm too grateful that the Falcon is like it is to bother." 

"Uh-uh Thank you," I stammered. 

As he turned to leave Kelnare remarked, "Clear skies smuggler." 

============================================================== 

The rest of the trip was uneventful, mainly because I locked Han and Eric in the cargo bay. I figured they couldn't kill each other without their blasters, and they might even learn to get along. But whatever they did they couldn't disturb me or damage my ship. 

By the second day they were working together... to put up a divider across the bay. Since both of them seemed to be uninjured, I assumed they had decided against fighting, but name calling was to be their favorite pastime. 

Chewbacca didn't care for this arrangement, but he agreed not to interfere. 

When we landed on Corellus, I let them out to help unload Eric's cargo and collect our pay. 

============================================================== 

"Lando, could we take a slight detour?" Han asked. 

"Sure, where are we going?" 

"Jotorus Range, I want to see if it was damaged by the Republic attack," Han replied. 

I hoped it hadn't been, Han was obviously upset by the hideous damage done to the city we had landed in. Many of the building had been destroyed. Their ruins still blocked the streets even though the attack had occurred over a year ago. We learned that the Rebel Government had been blamed for the attack because it had initiated Corellus' alliance with the Ibrias Coalition. That had been the last blow to the Rebel Government's tenuous control over the planet. 

For a short time CRMC took charge, but when conditions didn't improve immediately they lost support. New groups were formed by the dozens, but none of them were strong enough to bring the planet under their control. Without a government the war against the Colonists was forgotten, but they had been weakened so badly that they simply became one more contender for control of the planet. 

When I learned Han had supported the Rebel Government rather than Eric's CMRC I wasn't surprised, but I was worried that Han would try to destroy Eric's cargo. When I asked him about that he replied that he didn't care who won. All the groups were equally useless. 

============================================================== 

Jotorus wasn't what I expected at all, but from Han's reaction I'd say it was just like it was supposed to be. After flying over endless meadows, canyons and other natural landscapes Han guided the ship toward the mountains. 

"There's Kaydose Pass," Han commented to himself. "Future Pass is over there, and Charis valley is somewhere in between." 

He slowed the Falcon to a near standstill as we coasted through the mountains. Finally we found an inhabited valley and Han landed the ship. 

A short while later about twenty people had gathered around us. Han went to meet them. 

"Hi everyone," he said nervously. 

A young woman rode up on a dull brown horse. The horse refused to stop to let her get off. Instead it hurried up to Han and began rubbing it's head against him. 

"Hey Dusty, I'm glad to see you too," he said softly. 

"Han?" the girl greeted him uncertainly. 

"None other," Han replied laughing. "How's it been Gwendalin?" 

Everyone was suddenly asking question and talking about what had happened since Han had last been there. After several minutes they noticed Chewbacca and I standing quietly at the head of the ramp. Han introduced everyone and in the end we were invited over for supper. 

While we were eating I noticed Han and a boy about his age named Alexander were doing a lot of quiet talking. 

I found out what they had been arranging when the Falcon lifted off. It wasn't a very professional take off so I knew Han wasn't at the controls. 

"It's an old bet," Gwendalin explained quietly. "Han and Alexander will make sure your ship gets back safely." 

Then she asked, "Do you want to come riding with Han and me tomorrow? Han asked Chewbacca, but he didn't think a horse could carry him." 

"Han can actually stay on top of a horse?" I asked. 

"He's really very good at it as long as he's riding Dusty." Gwendalin replied. 

"I'll just take your word for it," I commented. "I don't want to ruin you ride." 

"We really wouldn't mind," Gwendalin pressed. 

"I'd mind when I broke a limb falling off the thing. 

"By the way, what was that old bet of Han's?" I asked curiously. 

"Alexander and Han got in an argument over how difficult using a flying machine really is," Gwendalin explained. 

"Well with Han co-piloting nothing serious can go wrong," I sighed, knowing that there wasn't a thing I could do if I was wrong about that. 

============================================================== 

Han and Alexander brought the Falcon back an hour later. 

The next day Han and Gwendalin packed a lunch and took off for Jotorus' plains. Han was riding the horse he called Dusty. Gwendalin took a dark brown horse with a black mane and tail. 

He and Gwendalin returned from the plains late that night. The next day Han, Chewbacca and I had to leave Corellus. 

============================================================== 

"You know Han, I learned something about you on this trip," I commented. 

"And what was that?" Han asked leaning back in his chair. 

"You were a lot more mature when you were younger!" I exclaimed, thinking of all the problems between him and Eric. 

"I had more responsibilities back on Corellus," Han replied calmly. 

"I'm sure I can fix that." 

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	10. Kernobi

**Finding a Path - Kernobi**

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the movie "Star Wars."

Luke was eight years old now and living with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Owen and Beru had been delighted to take care of Luke, but they weren't so happy when I told them I would be instructing Luke in using the Force. Owen's initial reaction had been ordering me off his land. Once he calmed down he convinced the local government to order me out of the county. Owen told me that the Force and I were responsible for Anakin becoming lost to the Dark Side. He was certain that if he could keep Luke on Tatooine, and away from the bad influances that had destroyed his father, Luke would be safe. 

I doubted that the galaxy would let someone as strong in the Force as Luke Skywalker live out his life on an obscure farm in a backwater solar system like Tatoo. I also knew that it would do me no good what-so-ever to try to explain that to Owen. Besides, it would be years before Luke would need guidance in the Force. Perhaps it would be best for the boy if Owen were given a chance to teach him some of the moisture farmer's practical, stubborn, reality based ideas. Owen's teaching might even save Luke from his father's fate. 

So I left Tatooine and Luke Skywalker for a short trip to Alderaan to check on his sister. 

When Candra had died of an illness several years earlier, Bail and Cora decided to adopt Leia. I felt that their decision would be most helpful in keeping her hidden from Anakin and Palpatine. 

After checking on Leia I had planned to return to Tatooine immediately, but Owen's accusation stopped me. In a way I was responsible for Anakin turning to the Dark Side. I had begun his training in the Force. I should have been able to stop him from turning to the Dark Side. I should have at least realized that I had gotten into more trouble then I was able to handle when he refused to stop experimenting with the Force. If I had I could have gotten help. But instead, I had charged blindly ahead driving Anakin to the Dark Side. 

In the last few years so many of the Jedi Knights had died or disappeared, and I had driven one who might have been the strongest of us all to the Dark Side. Why hadn't I been more careful? He was my first student. Why hadn't I asked a more experianced teacher to help me? 

I decided it was my duty to try to bring Anakin back to the light. I owed it to him and to the galaxy. 

The Force lead me to a planet that was rebelling against Palpatine's new measures. I was eventually drawn to the labyrinth of tunnels beneath a volcano on one of the planets thousands of islands. 

I waited for Anakin in a cave lit only by the lava river flowing through it. 

"Why have you come here old man?" A voice demanded from the shadows. 

I waited till the speaker stepped into the light, he was dressed from head to foot in black battle armor covered by a long cape of the same color. 

I wished I had more time to prepare for the greatest battle of my life, a battle against Darkness. 

Finally I replied, "Hello Anakin..." 

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